Into the Asylum
by The Silent Scream
Summary: A field trip takes Willow and her fellow students to an abandoned asylum - a place unpleasant enough anywhere in the world, but with extra danger added in Sunnydale. Without her partner or the Slayer by her side, it's up to Willow to protect the group and get them out of there alive. Willow / OC est. relationship, rating for violence and curses.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: As promised, here we go with the next instalment of this little (or perhaps not so little anymore…) series. One can probably tell that it was written at a time when I watched a lot of slasher movies… Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

* * *

Into the Asylum

It was almost scary, Willow reflected, how close she was to never going to the university anymore; just a few more classes, then handing in her dissertations, the fact that she was doing so with two at the same time setting her apart from the rest of the students, then the graduation ceremony and then she'd be done, leaving the university with two PhDs under her belt and hopefully ready for the working world.

 _And even if it takes you a while to find something,_ she thought to herself as she made her way over campus, to the lecture hall, knowing that she was going to one of the last few classes she'd take there, _you know it won't matter, Pat told you so…_

Even though she didn't like the thought of her girlfriend using the money she had accumulated during centuries to pay for her, she had to admit that it was nice to know that the demon wasn't minding the thought; she had reassured her countless times that it'd be okay, and that she could take her time with finding a proper job.

Still, she felt slightly wistful as she entered the lecture hall, after all the hours she had spent in there, sometimes with Buffy, sometimes alone; this time, there was no Slayer to accompany her, since the class was for the doctoral candidates only, just twelve of the seats thus taken, one of the students waving happily at her as she entered while the rest appeared rather indifferent, none of them having socialized too much with her during the past few years.

Figuring that she might as well sit next to the guy who obviously was happy to see her, Willow moved to the seat next to his, recalling that his name was Brad as she sat down; he greeted her happily, and she smiled back at him while she got comfortable, then asked him how he was doing.

"Fine, thanks", he let her know, "feeling a bit strange because soon, we'll be doctors and leave from here! How does it make you feel?"

"The same way", Willow reassured him, "just as I walked here from the bus stop, I was thinking about that. Do you know yet what you'll do once you got your PhD?"

"I want to start at the FBI", Brad told her, prompting her to raise an eyebrow, "become a profiler and help catching the bad guys. I know it's not like on Criminal Minds, but I'm sure it's awesome."

 _You don't need to join the FBI to fight bad guys,_ the witch thought to herself while she smiled and nodded, not willing to tell him this out loud, well aware of how strangely good people were at repressing all the darker sides of Sunnydale, _you could just stay right here and join the gang. More than enough bad guys then._

"Come on", another guy called out from one of the seats at the far back, the blonde next to him giggling rather silly, "as if you'd be able to stomach that. You'll throw up the second you see your first dead guy!"

"Shut up, Chris", Brad replied, rolling his eyes, while Willow held back an annoyed huff, only to almost let it out after all seconds later when the tall and rather buff guy decided to address her.

"Yo, Willow", he started, and she could hear the smirk on his face, already knowing something dumb would come next, "how's your girlfriend? Still playing for the other team?"

"Yes", the redhead replied curtly, not wanting to waste any more breath on the guy; and just as she always did when she saw him in class, she asked herself how he had gotten this far, along with his girlfriend, the two of them being walking clichés, with him playing quarterback for the university's football team and her being one of the cheerleaders.

"Ignore him", Brad whispered to her, making sure he wouldn't hear him, "you know what a jerk he is…"

"Indeed", Willow gave back at once, smiling slightly again now, knowing that it'd be just a waste of energy and nerves to let his comments get to her – after all, he was the only one who ever bothered to make stupid remarks about her relationship, and even with those, he wasn't all too creative, usually sounding like he should be back in high school instead of at college.

"They only let him get so far because he scores for the team", Brad added, making her nod yet again; if Chris had heard this rather nasty comment, he ignored it, only saying something to the girl next to him which made her giggle in that dreadful high-pitched way again, prompting both Willow and Brad to roll their eyes in perfect unison.

Moments later though, the girl fell silent as the door opened once more and the professor came strolling into the lecture hall, smiling at the students; they almost automatically smiled back at him, since he was one of the few each and every one seemed to like, the cheerleader for some strange reason probably only known to her giggling again when he wished them a good morning.

"I know you're all eager to get started with today's lecture", he then told them with a hint of mischief twinkling in his eyes, "especially since most of you already have finished their dissertation and just need to hand them in anymore."

He winked at them, then moved to the lectern, picking up the remote control which laid there waiting for him, not switching on the beamer it was used for though, but merely holding it, his gaze moving from one student to the next as he spoke on, his words making them all perk up in surprise.

"There's not much left I can teach you about general psychology", he let them know, "without knowing what each and every one of you wants to specialize in. So I figured, I might as well surprise you with a little excursion. Not right now of course, I know you all have other classes today, but for Friday afternoon. Yes, Janine?"

The last two words were directed at the cheerleader, who let out a silly giggle in reply again, then finally found herself able to reply, her words making the professor smile slightly in response. "So where will we go, Professor Rimmon? To some cooky old psychologist with years and years of practice?"

"No", Rimmon replied with a slight laugh, shaking his head, "to no old psychologist. To a place much more… interesting."

And with those words, he pushed the button which activated the beamer, a large picture of an abandoned looking facility appearing on the screen moments later, a murmur going through the students as they tried to figure out what this building was, a smirk on the professor's face again as he answered the unasked question. "We'll go visit Sunny Meadows. It's been abandoned for decades, and it used to be a sanatorium."

* * *

"An asylum", Pat repeated hours later, raising an eyebrow and somehow managing to keep up her rather casual, conversational tone while she ducked the punch of the Slayer she was battling, "and that close to Sunnydale? What could possibly go wrong. I bet it's haunted or something."

"He said sanatorium", Willow corrected her, taking a step back so she wouldn't end up in the line of fire, both of them ignoring the look Buffy shot them, clearly not fond of their small talk during the sparring session, "but I thought the same thing. It just sounded less sarcastic in my head."

"I should tell you now not to go", the demon grumbled, avoiding yet another punch, this time by simply leaning back, then retaliating with one of her own, making it Buffy's turn to duck, "but in case something _does_ happen there, those students will be cannon fodder without anyone there to help them."

"What does it say about us that the first thing we think about when we hear the words asylum and sanatorium is mayhem and violence?" Buffy wanted to know, raising her hands to signal that the fight was over while she took a few steps back, "Will, tell us, you're the psychologist here."

"Not yet", Willow reminded her in reply, "and honestly, I don't even wanna know. But I'm with Pat here, this is just bound to go wrong. An abandoned asylum? Like Pat said, it'll probably be haunted."

"I wish I could come with you", the taller woman sighed, making Buffy nod at once, "damn, now I regret it that I dropped out. I doubt they'll let me come if I'm not a student."

"They won't", Willow confirmed, "students only. Oh, and Professor Rimmon, of course, he'll do the tour."

"The tour, right", the demon gave back, rolling her good eye and making her partner giggle at her deadpan tone, "can't visit an abandoned asylum without a tour. Do we know anything about this place?"

"Not yet", the redhead let her know, "I came here right after the last class. I'll look into it at home though."

"If anyone got gruesomely killed there or something, I'll just follow you guys there", Pat decided in reply, her tone of voice making it clear that there would be no discussion about this, "just in case."

"I appreciate that", Willow reassured her, smiling slightly; anyone else might have found the taller woman overprotective, or perhaps even a bit creepy, but after all the things they had seen in Sunnydale, the redhead was simply glad to know that she'd be there, ready to jump in, should anything happen.

"We've been living here for too long", Buffy declared as she moved to where the cooled bottles of water were waiting, graciously given by Anya, "if the first thing we think about when we hear _excursion to an asylum_ is _something creepy is gonna happen._ "

"Too true", Willow agreed, holding back a sigh, knowing that moving away wasn't an option – with the regular apocalypses and catastrophes having their beginning in Sunnydale, she knew that there was no way she could leave and just abandon Buffy and the rest like that.

As if she could hear her thoughts, Buffy gave her a brief apologetic look, making her smile slightly in response, a wordless reassurance that everything was alright; for a few more moments, they looked at each other, then the witch got moving again, making her way to where Pat had sat down on one of the training mats and snatching her bottle of water from her, taking a deep gulp from it.

"Ack", she then let out, her free hand moving to her tummy and pressing against it, "too cold. How can you drink that?"

"My insides are hotter than yours?" the black haired woman shrugged in response, adding "fire demon" at the look Buffy and Willow both shot her in response; she smirked, then took the bottle back from her and drank as well, covering her mouth to stifle a burp moments later.

"Are you two done?" the redhead wanted to know, looking from her partner to the Slayer, "cause if you are, I'd like to head on home and get some research done on that asylum."

"I think we are", the taller woman gave back, then shot Buffy a questioning look, making her nod; they both came to their feet, then left the training room together, the blonde telling them to call her once the research would be done and there were some bloody stories in the asylum history, both of them nodding and promising they would, then leaving the store together, soon heading to their home.


	2. Chapter 2

"Interesting", Willow commented quite some time later, her gaze focused on the screen of her laptop, the demon looking up and at her at the sound of her voice, a hint of worry in her own when she replied, asking if she had found something gruesome in the asylum's history.

"Nothing at all", the redhead let her know, prompting her to raise an eyebrow, "they were a model asylum, for their time. Of course they had some rather… well, I suppose today we'd call them barbaric practices, but all the asylums did that back then, so…"

"Huh", Pat let out in response, moving to sit next to her on the couch and peering at the screen, even though doing so always made her eye go red and runny after a while, "how strange. No vanished patients? No gruesome deaths or crazy experiments?"

"Nothing", the witch repeated her earlier statement, "at least nothing on record. That doesn't mean nothing happened there, of course, but…"

"I bet they covered it up", the demon grumbled, looking unhappily at the screen, "so no one can find out anymore. And I really don't like the thought of you going there, I don't know why, but my gut tells me it's a bad idea."

"I think we're just getting paranoid", Willow gave back, shrugging at the disbelieving look Pat shot her in response, "and nothing's going to happen. And anyway, it's just one day, we'll leave in the morning and come back in the evening, I'm sure it'll be fine without Buffy and you following us there."

"Makes sense", the taller woman agreed with a sigh, giving her another unhappy look afterwards, "but I still have a bad feeling about this."

"Maybe, for once, nothing bad will happen", Willow smiled, snuggling closer to her in an attempt to calm her down and immediately prompting her to put one arm around her, finding her cigarettes with her free hand afterwards and lighting one of them up, a hint of dismay still in her voice when she spoke up again at last.

"Fine, you win, I'm not gonna follow you… You're probably right, and nothing will happen, and I'll feel like a paranoid idiot", she grumbled, making the witch smile slightly, "but promise you make sure your phone's fully charged, and that you take along some stuff for magic!"

"Of course", the redhead reassured her at once, touched by her concern, moving one hand to tenderly caress her upper leg, the touch making the taller woman smile as well, "even though apparently, nothing gruesome happened in that asylum, it'd be rather reckless to go there without any defences."

"Indeed", Pat agreed at once, "I'd tell you to bring a weapon, but, well…"

"I don't really have any training with weapons", Willow finished for her, making her nod, "and if there are ghosts, daggers and swords won't do me much good, anyway. But as I said, I'm sure it'll be fine, Professor Rimmon's a very dedicated professor, I'm sure he looked it up before he chose it for the trip."

"He better", Pat grumbled, "cause if something does happen there, I'll personally kick his ass."

"Sweetie, no", Willow gave back with a small giggle, shaking her head, "at least not until I finished and got my PhD. And even then, it won't be his fault."

"Let's just hope things will go fine", the demon sighed out in reply, making her nod slightly, "and that I'm worrying for nothing."

"Right there with you", the witch reassured her, then smiled at her, a well-known glint in her eyes as her hand slid up and down the taller woman's thigh, the way she immediately shuddered in response making it clear that the redhead's touch was having the effect she had been hoping for.

"But no more worrying now", she mumbled, her hand sliding further and further up her lover's leg, until she reached the belt and, with skilled fingers, opened it, "now I got something else to occupy your mind…"

The only response she got was that Pat let out a low growl, then kept her from saying more by kissing her deeply, her hands moving to the front of her blouse and quickly beginning to unbutton it, all thoughts about the asylum and what danger might lurk there for the moment forgotten.

* * *

On the day of the excursion, Willow arrived at campus alone, after having convinced Pat that it wasn't necessary to get up with her so she could take her there; just like she had promised the demon, she had made sure that her phone was fully charged, and had packed a small bag with supplies for various spells, even though she told herself that she wouldn't unpack those things unless it became really necessary, a decision which only was enforced by the fact that Sylvie Wireson was part of the student group taking the trip, the redhead still remembering her and her know-it-all ways from the Wicca group.

 _The moment she sees this stuff, she'll tell me how it can be used for a love spell,_ she thought to herself, perhaps a bit spiteful, but not without reason, as love spells had been all the other girl had been talking about when she had been in the group, _and the last thing I need is to give Chris more ammunition for his idiot comments._

As if he had heard that she was thinking of him, the quarterback turned and looked at her, grinning slightly, in a lecherous way that made her skin crawl; if his girlfriend noticed, she didn't let it show, merely looking down her nose at the redhead, then turning away from her with ostentation, forcing the witch to hold back a giggle as she asked herself if Janine really thought that this would bother her.

 _That might have worked in high school, honey,_ she thought to herself, her gaze wandering over the rest of the students taking the trip, _but not anymore._

When her gaze met Brad's, the young man smiled at her and gave her a small wave, prompting her to smile back at him; from the other students, she only remembered the name of two more, namely Vivien, a rather obnoxious girl who thought that she knew everything because the professor of another class has made her his assistant, and a guy named Barrold, one she never had talked to much, but knew that many other students didn't like him, mostly because he was a smartass and refused to help anyone out by lending them his notes or answering questions.

"Everyone here, and everyone on time, great", Professor Rimmon greeted after he had checked the small group of thirteen students, smiling at them, "the bus should be here any moment now, then we can leave right away. You all brought something to write and something to take pictures with, right?"

"Yes", the students chorused in response, making the professor's smile widen; he checked his watch, then removed a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one of them up, gaining the attention of his students again moments later as he spoke up again after the first deep drag.

"I want this trip to be interesting and fun for all of you", he let them know, his gaze moving from one student to the next, "but there have to be a few basic rules before we go there. The first and most important one, no one goes anywhere alone once we are there. It's an abandoned building, deemed safe to enter, but it's easy to get lost there and perhaps not all areas are suitable for walking around. Second, no drinking and no drugs during the trip, and that includes the bus ride. And third, no touching of anything there unless I allow it."

They all nodded their agreement, earning yet another smile from the elder man; then, the bus finally drove up to them, and he once more repeated the rule about no alcohol or other drugs on it, letting them all climb in first before he ditched his cigarette and got in as well, taking the seat at the front, closest to the driver.

Since he was the one she got along with best, Willow sat next to Brad, Chris and Janine to her dismay taking the seats right behind her; hoping that they'd spend the trip making out, she got comfortable, momentarily regretting that she hadn't brought along a book for the drive, then told herself that surely, she'd find enough to talk about with Brad and thus wouldn't need one.

"I wonder if a lot of the stuff is still there", the young man next to her spoke up now, as if he had heard her thoughts and wanted to confirm them, "of the stuff they used, I mean."

Before the witch had a chance to reply, her phone vibrated in her pocket, two short bursts which signalled that she had received a text; she mumbled a brief apology to Brad, then dug out her phone, almost automatically smiling when she saw that it had been sent by her partner.

 _Urgh, shame on you,_ the demon had written, to the witch's amusement, _just letting me sleep in on the day of your big trip. Take care, ok? And call me in case anything happens. Feel smooched._

The last two words almost made her giggle out loud, and she shook her head, then started to compose her reply – when Chris leaned forward so he could glance at the display, a hint of contempt in his voice when he spoke up, right into her ear, startling her.

"That from your girlfriend?" he wanted to know, raising an eyebrow at her while Janine giggled in her seat, "too bad she didn't come along. Perhaps we could have helped the two of you there, you know, they used to treat people like you in that place, too."

"Too bad they found no cure for being a jerk yet", she replied without missing a beat, momentarily thankful that apparently, some of the deadpan snarker ways of her partner had rubbed off on her; clearly surprised by her response, Chris gave her another look, then slumped back into his seat, mumbling something to his girlfriend which made her giggle yet again.

Now that she had her peace again, she quickly wrote back, reassuring her partner that she'd take care and that she'd call her the moment something strange would begin to happen; then, she tucked the phone back into her pocket and focused on Brad and their talk again, soon forgetting about the quarterback and his stupid words.


	3. Chapter 3

"…so then I got out my phone and called my dad and told him to unlock the door cause someone stole our lock", Brad finished one of the few stories he had about getting drunk, smiling at the giggles the redhead was letting out in response, "he got really pissed and I was grounded for a month."

"Poor you", the witch showed some sympathy, the fact that she was still giggling though ruining the effect a bit, "I don't think I ever got that drunk… My girlfriend and my best friend, on the other hand, had a drinking contest once, and it was an adventure to get her home then."

For a moment, she almost expected Chris to make some comment again at hearing her mention her girlfriend; to her relief though, he remained quiet this time, either not having heard her or not bothering to say something this time.

"I imagine", Brad distracted her from those observations, frowning to himself as he thought about her words, "I think I saw her around campus a few times. Isn't she quite a bit taller than you?"

"She is", the witch confirmed with a giggle, "so you can imagine how difficult it was to get her home in one piece, without jostling her around too much. A few times I almost—"

The loud bangs interrupted her, two of them in perfect unison, followed by two more seconds later; the first thought which came up in Willow's mind at hearing them was _gunshot,_ the memory of the man trying to shoot and kill Buffy in the Sunnydale airport still was rather fresh in her mind, and later, she'd have a moment to realize that the sounds indeed had been quite similar.

"Shit!" the driver cursed, making it clear what had happened, the bus careening enough to force the students to grip the seats in front of them so they wouldn't be thrown off them and into the aisle, a few of them getting out startled enough to let out small cries.

"What's going on?!" Brad still had time to cry out, then the bus veered off the road and into the ditch next to it; with her grip on the seat tightening, Willow squeezed her eyes shut as she heard glass shatter and metal bend, sending a quick prayer to the Goddess that none of them would get harmed as the bus slowed down, then came to a stop at last, to her relief not falling over.

"What the Hell was that", Chris shouted once he had gotten over his shock, sitting up straight in his seat again, "what kind of an idiot driver are you!"

"Tires all burst", the driver gave back, turning in his seat to look at him, "don't know why, maybe there was something on the—"

The spear was crude and obviously homemade, but effective as it came crashing through the windscreen, shattering it, then in his chest, running him through and pinning him to his seat; he let out a gurgle which sounded oddly surprised, then looked down on the length of metal which suddenly stuck out of his body, blood blubbering from his mouth as he tried to say something.

"Oh God", Vivien brought out, breaking the stunned silence which had taken over at the sight of the driver getting impaled; and as if her words had been some sort of cue, several of the other girls started to scream, their yells only becoming louder when a strangely deformed man appeared in front of the broken windscreen, parts of his body covered with torn and tattered scraps of cloth, his skin looking as if he had some sort of gruesome disease, covered in sores all the way from his almost fully bald head to his gnarly toes, wet snuffling sounds coming from him as he stared at the dying man.

"…we have to get out", Willow was the first one to regain the ability to speak, grabbing Brad's arm when he just kept staring, "now! Come on!"

When he didn't react at once, she pulled his arm rather harshly, and finally managed to snap him out of his reverie; he stared at her with wide eyes, and she told him yet again that they had to get out of the bus, relieved to find that Chris had been thinking the same and was already at the back window, getting ready to smash it with his elbow.

"Hurry!" Willow snapped at him, glancing back over her shoulder at the deformed man while the rest of the students and Professor Rimmon hurrying to the back of the bus as well; for a moment, the quarterback looked as if he wanted to say something, then simply slammed his elbow against the window, needing a few more attempts until it shattered, a final, mighty push sending the single pieces out of the frame.

"Go, go!" the witch almost yelled, only managing to keep her voice down as she told herself that they shouldn't gain this scary looking man's attention; from the sounds she could hear coming from the front of the bus now, wet and tearing noises, she didn't need to look to know what he was doing to his victim, and the thought of making this guy realize they were still there made her stomach turn.

"Move, honey", Chris was telling his girlfriend, pushing her tenderly; the moment she had climbed out, he followed her, then Willow pushed Brad to the window, hissing at him that he should get moving.

"He's eating him", Brad gave back, sounding oddly numb, "look, he's eating him…"

"Get moving!" the redhead ordered in response, shoving him quite harshly; this finally had the desired effect, and he got to the window, climbing outside where Chris and Janine were waiting, nearly falling flat on his face as he landed rather clumsily.

"What's going on", Sylvie, who was next in line, whimpered, glancing back fearfully at the deformed man, "who is this guy? What is he doing?"

"Get out of the bus", the redhead ordered in reply, momentarily glad that she already had faced much more gruesome things in her life and thus found it remarkably easy to keep a cool head; Sylvie stared at her for a few more moments, then nodded and exited through the window.

"Keep moving, all of you", Willow hissed, now glancing back at last and, to her dismay, finding the deformed man looking at them, blood dripping from his chin and scraps of skin and flesh hanging out of his mouth; he let out a low grunt as he straightened up, not fully the way a regular human would, but more resembling an ape, with his hands dangling close to his knees, a greedy glint entering his milky eyes as he stared at the remaining students.

"Move, move, move!" the witch now did yell, pushing the person closest to her, realizing too late that it was Professor Rimmon; if he minded being yelled at and pushed though, he clearly knew that now was not the time to complain about, merely grabbing the hand of the student to his right in response and pulling them over to the window.

Snarling and snuffling audibly, the deformed man got moving, shambling down the aisle with slow, awkward steps; with some of her calm slipping now, Willow kept up the verbal encouragement, helping the others along with a push every now and then when they were too slow for her liking, the man almost upon them by the time the next to last student had climbed outside.

Now eager to join them, the redhead grasped the window frame, hoisting herself up, Brad and Rimmon shouting at her to hurry now; and just as she wanted to jump outside, strong fingers closed around her ankle with a steel-like grip, a startled cry escaping her at the unexpected hold she found herself in.

"Willow!" she heard Brad cry out while behind her, the deformed man, _the cannibal,_ her mind shrieked, _he's a cannibal,_ snarled and grunted, pulling her back; panic flared up within her as she struggled against his grip, at the same time holding on to the window frame as tight as she could, Rimmon and Brad hurrying forward to grab her arms in an attempt to help her.

"Let go!" the witch yelled at the gruesome man, even though she knew it was useless, a wave of horrible smell hitting her nostrils when he let out a strangely sounding huffing noise in response; then, his muscles bulged, and he jerked her back a few inches, not enough to make her lose her grip on the frame, but just enough to cause fresh fear and panic to bloom within her.

 _Oh Goddess help me!_ she found herself thinking, a brief flash of white in front of her eyes momentarily blinding her and frightening her; telling herself that surely, she wouldn't faint at such a crucial moment, she tightened her grip on the window frame – before her other foot shot out and she kicked the deformed man right in the face, hard enough to make him howl in pain as he fell back, fortunately letting go of her in the process and giving Rimmon and Brad the chance to hurriedly pull her outside.

"Are you alright?" the professor asked her, making her nod; he quickly looked her over, as if to make sure she really was, then nodded as well, making a vague gesture at the bus afterwards.

"We better get moving", he suggested, sounding remarkably calm, considering what just had happened, "before he recovers and decides to come after us. Come on!"

And with those words, he started to jog away from the bus, making sure everyone could keep up; they still heard the man howl and grunt as they hurried away from the site of the accident, until they finally were out of earshot and the professor allowed them to slow down, all of them asking themselves what just had happened back there.


	4. Chapter 4

"So what do we do now?" Chris asked quite some time later, after they had found more or less secure shelter in the woods lining the street to the asylum, "walk back to Sunnydale and report this?"

"We'd have to walk almost thirty miles", Vivien protested, prompting the attention of the others to shift from the quarterback to her, "and walking might be dangerous, what if there are more like that one guy out there? Did you see what he did to the driver?"

"Yes", Chris muttered, glancing back into the direction of the bus uneasily, the images clearly still fresh on his mind, "what the Hell was he, anyway? He looked like he had some kind of sickness."

"You guys never watch any horror movies?" Brad threw in, making them all look at him now, the tint of hysteria in his voice not unnoticed by Willow and the rest of them, "that's just like _The Hills Have Eyes_ or something. Crazy creepy incest hillbilly mutants, out to eat all of us, cause we're so tasty."

He let out a high-pitched laugh, wrapping his arms around himself, his giggling turning into sobs half a minute later, prompting Willow to place a calming hand on his shoulder, her voice surprisingly steady and calm when she spoke up, despite how uneasy she felt and how queasy her stomach was.

"It'll be okay", she told him, making him look at her with tears glistening in his eyes, "we'll figure out how to get away from here. We all got phones, right? We'll call… the police, and tell them what happened."

She gave him a moment to nod, then smiled reassuringly at him before she dug out her phone, her face falling seconds later though as she looked at it and saw that she had no reception, disappointed noises from the students around her telling her that they were facing the same problem; still, she tried to dial 911, telling herself that emergency calls should get through even then, her frown deepening when she merely heard a recorded voice telling her that her call couldn't be put through and that she should try again later.

"No luck", Sylvie muttered, having tried the same thing with her own phone; the rest of the students gave it a try as well, their dismay showing on their faces when none of them fared any better.

"So what now?" Willow wanted to know as soon as she had put her phone back into her pocket, fighting down her fear at the thought of being unable to reach anyone, especially her partner and best friend, knowing that Pat and Buffy would have made short work of the creepy man, "walk back to Sunnydale after all?"

"Perhaps we should head to the sanatorium instead", Rimmon gave back after thinking about this for a moment, "it's up on a hill, so we might have luck about the reception there, and we can use it as shelter from this… man."

"Or any friends he might bring", Chris mumbled, nodding his agreement to the professor's words, even though the redhead suspected he was mostly doing this to not side with her suggestion, "good idea. I'm for the sanatorium."

"Me too", Vivien agreed, a few of the other students voicing their approval, as well; nodding, Rimmon came to his feet again and glanced around, then dug out a small pocket knife and used the built-in compass to help him orientate himself, gesturing south a few moments later.

"This way", he told them, "and make sure you stay together. The last thing we need now is one of us getting lost."

Huddling together, the students started following him as he took the lead; clearly still afraid, Brad made sure to stay close to the redhead, looking as if he wanted to hold her hand, but not daring to, his gaze darting left and right nervously.

"Some profiler you'll be", Chris immediately took the chance given to be a douche again, snickering slightly, "you'll faint the first time you see a dead guy."

"Don't tell me you're not afraid", Willow was the one to answer, glaring at him over her shoulder, "we all know your tough guy act is just that, an act, a façade to keep yourself from freaking out."

"No squabbling", Rimmon threw in before the quarterback could come up with a response, giving them both a strict look, "we need to stick together now, you hear me? You can fight all you want once we are safe and sound back in Sunnydale."

"Just wait until he's not around anymore to protect your ass", Chris hissed at Willow the moment the professor's attention was elsewhere again, making sure to keep his voice down so Rimmon wouldn't hear, "then I'll show you how much of a tough guy I really am."

Not even willing to dignify this with a reply, the witch merely rolled her eyes in response; next to her, Brad gulped while Janine told her boyfriend to "leave this silly nerd alone", making the quarterback chuckle audibly.

"What a jerk", Brad whispered to the redhead, making sure Chris wouldn't hear him, "why can't he just leave you alone?"

"Never mind him", Willow gave back at once, pulling her phone out again and checking the reception, just to make sure, suddenly longing to hear her partner's voice, the confidence with which Pat would tell her that she'd come and that everything would be okay; the phone still couldn't connect to the network though, and with a small sigh, she put it back into her pocket.

"Stupid phone", she grumbled to herself, making Brad nod empathically; and that was when up ahead, a loud snapping sound echoed through the quiet woods, giving both the young man and her a second to wonder what it had been – before the metallic smell of blood hit their nostrils and the screaming started.

* * *

"Oh God, oh God, help me!" the unfortunate student who had been the one to activate the – rather simple, but gruesome, Willow thought to herself – trap kept screaming, his eyes wide and full of pain; he stood straight-backed, as stiff as a soldier, kept from moving even an inch by the sharp wooden stakes which had snapped downwards from one of the trees when he had stepped on the trigger and had dug into his shoulders.

"Oh Jesus", Vivien whimpered a few steps ahead of the redhead, trembling from head to toe, "oh Christ…"

"Hold still", Rimmon told the still screaming student in a remarkably calm voice, even though his face had paled drastically, "we have to get these… things out of you… Don't move…"

"It hurts", the young man whimpered, tears streaming down his face, dripping down to the grassy ground along with his blood, "it hurts so bad, please help me, please…"

"We will", Rimmon promised, taking a closer look at the booby trap, at the crude wooden branch to which the spikes had been tied with rough rope, "I promise, just try to hold still or you'll make it even worse…"

He took careful hold of the branch, then asked the student nearest to him to untie the spikes; with trembling hands, the girl set to work, even the smallest movements of the wood making the impaled student cry out in pain.

"Did he put this up?" Janine almost whimpered, looking around fearfully and prompting Chris to put one arm around her in an attempt to comfort her, "the guy who ate the driver?"

"He, or someone like him", Willow muttered, making them both look at her, the quarterback thankfully for once not having anything dumb to say, "I doubt he's the only one."

"Way to cheer me up", Janine grumbled, giving her a poisonous look, as if it was her fault; not sure what to reply, the redhead just shrugged, then focused her attention on the injured student again, regretting that she had left her bag in the bus at their hasty departure, figuring that she could have used the ingredients she'd brought to work a bit of healing magic on him.

 _On the other hand, none of the guys here knows you're a witch,_ she then reminded herself, holding back the urge to grimace, _who knows how they might react… Don't forget, they aren't a troop of people used to the supernatural, like your friends._

Another sharp crack distracted her from those thoughts, and for a second, she thought that somehow, another booby trap had been activated; this time, there was no screaming and no blood though, a shiver running down her spine seconds later as terribly familiar grunting and snuffling sounds reached her ears instead.

"Oh God", she heard Vivien press out next to her, while Brad let out a wordless and breathless whimper which probably should have been a scream; the noise was loud enough though to attract the attention of the two deformed men, both of them shifting slightly as they looked at him, one of them even licking his dry and cracked lips.

All around them, more of them appeared between the trees and bushes, men and women alike; the women looked just as bad as the men, wearing tatters and rags for clothing, exposing quite a bit of their bodies, and showing that they were just as covered in sores as their male equivalents.

"Run", Rimmon whispered, barely loud enough to be heard, "I'll stay here with Craig, the rest of you, run! We'll meet you at the sanatorium!"

Chris was the first one to follow those orders, taking off with Janine in tow, the blonde struggling to keep up; and even though Willow didn't like the thought of leaving the professor behind with Craig, she knew that staying and probably getting injured or even killed as well wouldn't help anybody, thus grasping Brad's hands and following the quarterback as fast as she dared on the uneven ground.

Behind her, she could hear someone follow them, then Vivien and Sylvie caught up to them, with Barrold right behind them; then, she realized that it might be smarter to pay attention on running and did just that, speeding up when she heard grunting and snuffling behind her.

 _Oh God, I wish Pat was here,_ she frantically thought to herself as she kept running, her stomach turning while another flash of bright white light momentarily blinded her, again prompting her to fear that she'd faint; telling herself that this was the last thing she needed now, she took in a few deep breaths, feeling Brad squeeze her hand as they kept running.

"Maybe they'll stop chasing us", Sylvie panted, glancing back at the men and women after them again and again, and once nearly falling flat on her face as she thus didn't spot a root and stumbled, "if they realize we're not easy prey…"

"Hopefully", Willow gave back, then saved her breath for running; she had a moment to ask herself if they were actually going into the right direction, then shrugged it off and told herself that they could orientate themselves once they were out of harm's way.

"Keep going", she added, now glancing back as well, at the four creeps following them, two men, two women; one of the men was already slowing down, and the other three started to look rather impatient as well, probably used to having their prey faster and easier.

Up ahead, Chris and Janine were running, the blonde already slowing though, clearly not used to this; her boyfriend kept urging her on, none of them bothering to look back at the small group following them, something which didn't really surprise the redhead though – so far, neither the quarterback, nor the cheerleader had seemed as if they cared much what might happen to any of them, only eager to save their own skins.

Trying to ignore how angry this made her at the two, Willow kept running; and finally, the sounds of their pursuers grew softer, then stopped as they gave up the chase and turned back, giving them all the chance to slow down again and catch their breath, something they desperately needed by then.


	5. Chapter 5

Extra chapter for my awesome friend Emerald Demona, next one will go up tomorrow as usual :)

* * *

"I need a break", Janine panted, slumping down to the ground and leaning her back against a tree, Chris crouching down next to her; he was the only one not out of breath, the rest of them breathing just as heavily as his girlfriend, the redhead momentarily even feeling as if she'd throw up any second, her stomach clenching up painfully.

"Do you think they got Rimmon and Craig?" Brad wanted to know, sitting down as well; not sure what to tell him, Willow lowered herself onto the ground next to him, then shrugged, still slightly out of breath as she replied. "Could be. Probably… If he stayed behind with Craig, and they were so close to them…"

"Where's the rest?" Sylvie wanted to know, looking around with a frown, "the others? Did they run a different way?"

"Who cares", Chris now confirmed the impression Willow had of him, "the professor said we should go to the asylum and meet there, so if they don't, it's their problem."

"We can't just leave them out here", the redhead argued back at once, her annoyance at him growing when he rolled his eyes in response, then bristled back, sounding as annoyed as the witch was feeling.

"Just in case you didn't notice, there are crazy cannibal creeps out there, eager to kill and eat us, and not necessarily in that order", he unnecessarily reminded her, "so if you want to run around and look for stragglers, and run right into those creepy, be my guest. But don't expect the rest of us to risk our hides for them, as well."

"He's right", Vivien took his side at once, not really surprising anyone, since she always had fancied the quarterback a bit, "we should go find the sanatorium, if they are still… out there, they will go there too, and we'll meet them there."

"Let's go then", Willow agreed after a moment, not liking the thought of leaving them all somewhere out there at all, but knowing that going on her own to find them would be suicidal; Chris gave her a slightly smug look, then came to his feet again, pulling Janine up with her.

"I'm tired", the cheerleader whined, looking at him unhappily, "Chris, I want to go home, now…"

"We'll go home soon", he promised her in response, "but first, we have to go to the asylum. Come on, we can rest there and we'll be safe."

Nodding, Janine let out a small sigh, holding on to her boyfriend as they got moving again; Brad and Willow were right behind them, Sylvie and Vivien bringing up the read, Sylvie muttering to herself under her breath, the redhead noticing a few moments later that she was praying – or trying to, from the words she was mumbling, the witch immediately figuring out that this was no prayer any God or Goddess might hear.

 _No use in telling her,_ she thought to herself, momentarily considering calling out to Hecate, then deciding against it – even if the Goddess might manifest yet again to help her, there wasn't much she could do about a threat which apparently wasn't supernatural, where magic wouldn't do much, but where raw strength was needed.

 _Hecate protect me,_ she still sent, not even sure if the Goddess could hear her – she could feel a strange energy all over the place, wondering if it was responsible for the sores the men and women had been afflicted by, or if they themselves were the cause of it, their bodies and minds so warped that they were afflicting the very essence of the area they lived in.

"…taken the time to learn some combat spells", Sylvie was telling Vivien behind her, "could use them against those… creeps… fire perhaps, I bet they won't like to be burned!"

The mention of the word fire made Willow think of her partner yet again, a longing so big filling her that it almost hurt her physically; and even though the demon's strength and experience and fighting skills would have been more than helpful in their current situation, the witch didn't just want her around for that, but simply needed her mere presence, her closeness and love, knowing it would be all so much easier if she'd just have the demon by her side.

"You'd just set the woods on fire", she said out loud, more to distract herself from her longing than to really join the conversation, "fire spells are not that easy to control."

"You both talk about this stuff as if it is real", Vivien chose this moment to butt in, prompting Willow to glance back at her, and to raise an eyebrow at the contempt on the short-haired girl's face.

"Have you both lost a few marbles while we ran?" Vivien went on, shaking her head, "combat spells, fire spells, anything else? Perhaps you can levitate, or turn the ground into water?"

 _Actually, I can,_ Willow thought to herself, having done both things on occasion, the latter to save her girlfriend from broken bones and internal injuries, didn't bother to point this out though, knowing that the other girl wouldn't believe her.

"You can discuss that childish crap all you want once we got out of here", Vivien went on, glaring at her now and making her wonder why she was reacting so strongly to the mere idea of magic, "but now, we have more important matters to deal with than your delusions."

"They are not delusions", Sylvie protested, shaking her head as well, "magic is real, I know it is! You are lucky the Goddess doesn't fry with you lightning for your disrespectful talking!"

"Hecate doesn't fry people", Willow mumbled under her breath, just loud enough for Brad to hear; he looked at her in confusion, but before he could ask her what she was talking about, Vivien suddenly stopped walking and narrowed her eyes, glancing left and right.

"I heard something", she explained when the others stopped as well and asked her what was going on, her eyes still darting this way and that, "to my right, I think… If you hadn't been so loud chattering about your idiot magic, I could tell for sure!"

"Shut up now, then", Chris hissed, pulling Janine closer to himself while she let out a little whimper, "are you sure you heard something?"

"Yes", Vivien snapped, taking another step forward, and that was when the hook came flying from her left and dug into her cheek, tearing the flesh open as whoever was holding the chain the hook had been attached to gave a mighty pull, the rusted metal not having entered deep enough to remain stuck, but ending up torn out, a shrill, somehow wet sounding scream coming from the girl when her face was torn open.

Strangely breathless sounding laughter was the answer to her shriek, mixing with the shocked cries the others let out; swinging the chain back and forth lazily, the hideous man came out of his hiding place, a greedy and hungry glint in his eyes as he brought his arm back, then threw the hook again, having better aim this time, the old, but still sharp metal digging into the unlucky girl's shoulder.

"Goddess help me!" Sylvie shrieked, stumbling away from the screaming Vivien, her flesh tearing yet again with a sick, wet sound as the man pulled the chain, the witch's stomach turning as her mind raced in an attempt to find a spell she could use to safe her, before he could reel her in like some sort of overgrown fish.

Raising her hands, she threw out the first spell she could think of, the binding spell she had used so often by now; and just as it was supposed to happen, thick vines grew from the ground beneath the man's feet, wrapped around his legs – and then puffed away harmlessly, the redhead nearly staggering back at the force with which her spell had been broken.

"Help me!" Vivien shrieked as the disgusting man pulled her even closer, now grinning from ear to ear; gritting her teeth, Willow brought up her hand in response, Chris looking at her startled when she snapped "Thicken!" in an attempt to create a barrier between the girl and her assailant, just to win some time – and just like her binding spell, it backfired spectacularly, right into the centre of her brain, with enough force this time to make her stagger back after all before her feet got tangled up and she fell, groaning as she hit the ground.

And then, the man had pulled Vivien close enough to grab her, and did just that; he took a second to leer at her – before his head shot down and he bit her already torn cheek, tearing out a big chunk of skin and flesh and making her shriek wordlessly in pain.

"Stop!" Chris shouted, not making a move though, merely standing where he was while Brad busied himself with helping Willow to her feet, "leave her alone!"

In response, the man briefly looked at him and smiled, his lips, teeth and chin smeared with blood; in his arms, Vivien had stopped struggling by now, just hanging there limply, merely twitching when he bit her again, gruesome wet smacking noises coming from him as he moved to focus on her throat, and when he tore it out with one harsh bite, the rest of the group finally got torn out of their reverie, turning as one and running yet again, shock and fear giving them the strength they needed to get away from him before he'd finish his meal and come after them.


	6. Chapter 6

"Willow?" Brad tentatively said after they finally had slowed down again to a mere walk, still eager to reach the asylum, "your nose is bleeding. Has been for quite some time now."

"The spell", Willow gave back, slightly nasally and without thinking about her words, still to upset after what just had happened, "that tends to happen when they backfire…"

"Oh great", Chris grumbled, ignoring how Sylvie was nodding wisely, "not only is she confused about what it means to be a woman, but now, she thinks she can do spells."

"Shut up, Chris", Willow gave back, without much fervour though, her head aching too much to let her get really angry, "before I decide to show you what I can do first hand."

"I'm so scared", the quarterback mumbled, glaring at her, "like Vivien said before that guy got her, you must have lost a few marbles when we were running away. Not that you were normal to begin with."

"Just leave her alone about this", Brad snapped at him, finding a handkerchief in his pocket and handing it to her, the redhead giving her a thankful look before she pressed to her nose, "we all know you just talk now because her girlfriend's not around to kick your ass."

"Pah", the quarterback let out while Willow smiled slightly, remembering the countless times Pat had reacted rather violently to people making derogatory comments about them or her when she'd been within earshot, "as if I'm afraid of her."

"You better be", Brad advised, making the taller guy huff, "I've seen her take a guy out with one punch because he said the wrong thing to Willow. She's strong."

"Probably just a lucky shot", Chris gave back, prompting the witch to roll her eyes, well aware of how strong the demon exactly was, "I'll let her have one, just so I can punch back and put her in her place."

"As entertaining as your squabbling is", Barrold now reminded them of his presence, after just having walked along silently ever since all of this had started, "I do believe the sanatorium is up ahead, so we should focus on getting there and making sure no surprises wait for us."

"Good point", Sylvie agreed at once, peering into the distance, "I think I can see it, look, there, up ahead!"

This prompted the others to look closer as well, and the bits and pieces of a building they could spot through the trees gave them new energy; they all sped up a bit, soon reaching the bottom of the hill the asylum had been built on, only now seeing how large the building was, and how surprisingly intact, despite being abandoned for decades.

"Let's go", Chris broke the silence which momentarily had formed, "and see if the door's open."

"If not", Brad whispered to Willow, making sure no one else could hear him, "could you open it with your magic?"

"…you believe there's magic?" the redhead wanted to know in reply, mildly surprised – so far he never had shown any penchant for the occult, and when he had spoken up to defend her minutes ago, it had been in response to the insults Chris had made about her sexuality, and not her words about magic.

"I've seen it", Brad replied after a moment, still keeping his voice down, "what you tried with the vines back then, that was you, right? And, I don't think you know, but a few weeks ago, I was walking home from the Bronze, and this strange guy attacked me, with his face all bumpy. And suddenly, Buffy was there and your girlfriend, and, well, she kinda… set her hands on fire, and I know I didn't imagine that... So magic doesn't seem so unreasonable."

"Yeah, she can do that", Willow let him know after a second, figuring that there was no need to lie about it anymore, smiling slightly when the young man asked her if her girlfriend was a witch, too, in response.

"Something like that", she gave back, not sure how he might react to the revelation that her partner was, in fact, a demon; to her relief, he just nodded, not inquiring further, asking her about the lock instead and making her nod after considering it for a moment.

"I've done it before", she told him, "so if Chris lets me, I should be able to pull it off again."

"Thank God", Brad sighed, then fell silent as they had reached the blocky building; and as it turned out, it wasn't necessary to try any spells on the lock, the door opening as Barrold turned the handle, revealing what had been the entrance hall back when the place still had been in use.

Now, it was clear that the large room wasn't used for much anymore; there was dust everywhere, making Sylvie sneeze, and the few pieces of furniture which still were around were broken and useless, the air smelling stale and strangely old, even though there was something in it which made the witch uneasy, an odour too weak to be defined, but noticeable enough to send shivers down her spine.

"Oh shit", she heard Chris mumble, glancing over at him; their eyes met, and for the first time there was no contempt in his gaze, but only cold dread as he pointed to the floor – and to the footprints in the dust there, leading to one of the dark hallways, the ground left and right of the tracks splattered with dried, reddish-brown blotches which only could be one thing.

"They're here", Chris added, just enough of a tremble in his voice to let the others hear it, "we just walked right to them… Oh God, what if…"

"What if they live here", Sylvie finished for him, and as if those words had been some sort of cue, shuffling and growling came up all around them, followed by the deformed men and women appearing in the hallways, staring at them greedily, chattering to each other excitedly.

"Oh God", Brad whimpered as two more slid in behind them, blocking off the exit; the sharp stench of his urine was added to the bad smell of the air, and then he was running, blindly rushing off into the only hallway where no one was standing, prompting Willow to let out a startled cry – before she followed him, hearing the creeps behind her yet again, but not daring to look back.

From the sounds of it, the rest of the group had ran off somewhere else, briefly prompting her to wonder where they had gone, with all the other hallways blocked; then, she shrugged it off and called out to Brad, eager to make him stop at least long enough so she could catch up to him, but if he had heard her, he didn't react, merely running on as fast as he could, turning the next corner and vanishing into yet another hallway.

"Brad!" Willow called out again, trying hard to ran faster, even though her legs and lungs were screaming at her by now, "Brad, wait! We need to stay together, at least the two of us!"

Behind her, she could hear one of them, panting and snuffling as he followed her, but couldn't quite catch up with her; she rounded the corner she had seen Brad take, only to nearly stumble as she found herself at a dead end, no doors left or right, not even a window, just blank walls and the young man huddling in the corner, crying hopelessly.

"That's it", he sobbed as the witch hurried to his side, "now they'll get us, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

Not sure what to say in response to this, Willow moved to crouch next to him, her mind racing as she tried to find something she could use as a weapon; and just then, the creep came around the corner, as well, stopping momentarily and looking at them – before he smiled and rubbed his hands, sounding oddly gleeful when he spoke in a rough, somehow unformed voice.

"Food", he let them know what he saw them as, "meat. Tasty." Still rubbing his hands, he started approaching, slowly, just in case they might try to attack him; with her heart hammering up to her throat, Willow tried to shield Brad from view while she still looked around for something she could use to defend them against this man, but the hallway was empty, only dust and tiny pieces of mortar lying on the ground.

"Food", he repeated, only mere feet away and steadily coming closer; he licked his lips and reached out again, the redhead almost involuntarily squeezing her eyes shut as she anticipated his gross touch any moment now, wondering if she could fight him physically, if she'd be strong enough, after all the running and fear and terror, or if she'd just go stiff and limp with panic, the way Vivien had.

And that was when the meaty _thunk_ suddenly echoed through the corridor, a sound she knew well, having heard it a million times by now; her heart skipped a beat as her eyes opened and she looked up, just in time to see him still standing, a look of mild surprise on his face, said face looking even more deformed than it had before, the axe having parted his skull almost all the way down to his upper lip.

"Goddess", was all the witch could bring out, asking herself if it had been too much for her mind and she had snapped, now seeing what she so desperately wanted to see; and then, Pat pulled the axe out and the man fell, dead before he even hit the ground, a smirk on the demon's face as her gaze met the redhead's, her voice remarkably calm and carefree when she lowered the weapon and spoke up, just a few words, but enough to convince Willow that this was real. "Hey there, love. Missed me?"


	7. Chapter 7

For a few more seconds, all Willow did was stare – before she launched herself forward and into the taller woman's arms, registering how the axe clanked to the floor seconds before she was in the tight embrace, a shudder running through her as she realized what a close call this had been.

"Missed you?" she demanded to know, looking up at the taller woman, "are you kidding me? And you couldn't have made this any more exciting, right?"

"Well, I could have waited until he actually grabbed you", Pat pointed out, earning a raised eyebrow, which resulted in yet another smirk from her, "but I figured that'd be nasty, so I finished him off before he could do that. Still got an entrance heroic enough, don't you think?"

"More than heroic", Willow reassured her, then pulled her down for a rather deep kiss, not caring about the fact that Brad was still mere inches behind her, staring with wide eyes; clearly, Pat had no such qualms either, since she immediately responded to the kiss, pulling the redhead even closer to herself.

"Can't let you go anywhere alone", she mumbled after the kiss, tenderly caressing the smaller woman's back and helping her to calm down even further, "just look at what happened. I was totally right."

"You were not", Willow argued back at once, smiling slightly now, "you said it'd be haunted. It's not, it's creepy cannibals out to eat us all."

"Same thing", the demon shrugged her protest off, making her giggle; then, she remembered Brad and hurriedly turned her attention back to him, relieved to see that he had stopped crying by then and was smiling, now coming to his feet as well, looking at the demon with what only could be admiration in his eyes as he moved a bit closer.

"Thanks so much", he almost gushed, smiling brightly at her, "you saved us, this creep would have eaten us…"

"Not gonna let anyone eat my girlfriend", Pat smirked, "but you're welcome. Good thing I made it here just in time."

"And once we made sure everyone else is okay, I want to know everything about how you managed that", Willow told her, "but now we have to go find the others, before those creeps get their hands on anyone else… They killed the driver already and probably the professor and Craig, and Vivien…"

Even though none of these names meant anything to her, Pat nodded her agreement, figuring that explanations could wait until they all were safe and sound again, at least as safe and sound as they could get; she bent down to pick up her axe, shouldering it before she asked the witch and Brad to stay behind her, both of them nodding their agreement at once.

"That was so badass", Brad whispered to Willow as the demon started moving, making her way back to the hallway which would lead them either deeper into the sanatorium or back to the entrance hall, "just axing him like that…"

"She's quite protective of me", Willow let him know in response, lovingly glancing at the taller woman walking in front of her and smiling slightly again, "and she really doesn't like it if someone tries to do something to me. I'm just glad she somehow figured out we need her and came here in time."

"Believe me, so am I", Brad agreed at once, then they both fell silent as they had made it back to the entrance hall; to their dismay, no one was there, neither the creepy men and women, nor any of the students, the marks in the dust on the ground showing that there had been quite the scuffle not all too long ago.

"Dammit", the demon grumbled, glancing around, "looks like they got taken. The good thing is, the door is now unguarded, the bad thing is, we can't just leave them here."

"Not even that jerk Chris", Brad sighed, prompting Willow to nod in agreement – before she gave him a stern look, causing him to take a step back in surprise.

"We can't leave you here, either", she let him know, "but taking you along is dangerous, as well. There might be fighting, and magic, and Pat might do things which could upset you. No matter what happens, remember we are the good guys and don't run off in a panic, alright?"

"Yes, of course", Brad nodded, glad when she gave him a reassuring smile; before she could do or say anything else though, a cry reached their ears, causing them all to perk up – before Pat's grip on her axe tightened and she told them in a hushed voice to be quiet now, making them both nod their agreement.

After exchanging another look with Willow, a silent reassurance that everything would be okay, and an exchange that made Brad feel slightly left out, as it demonstrated the strong bond between the two, the demon started moving, momentarily impressing him with how soundlessly she did so; then, Willow followed her, and he did the same, both of them giving their best to be as quiet as the taller woman.

It didn't take long until another cry came, pointing them in the right direction; gulping, Brad moved closer to Willow, having recognized the voice as Chris', asking himself what was been done to him to make him sound like that.

If he had been on his own, the two shouts wouldn't have been enough to tell him where exactly the quarterback was; to his relief though, Pat seemed to have no such troubles, moving down one of the hallways without hesitation, giving the rooms she walked past just the shortest glance to make sure no one would jump out at them from there.

Wondering if she really was as sure about where they had to go as she seemed, Brad kept walking, glancing left and right as they moved closer to wherever Chris was; and not long afterwards, the smell of blood and urine hit his nostrils, the noise which came from Willow showing him that she had smelled it as well, his stomach turning at the revolting odour.

"Quiet now", the demon whispered, raising the axe slightly to be ready for any kind of attack, "we don't know what's in there with him."

Slowly, she reached out with her free hand, grasping the handle of the door behind which she had located the quarterback; without even noticing that she was doing it, Willow held her breath as the door opened, the horrible stench only increasing, another cry coming from behind the door as the room it lead to was revealed.

"Ouch", Pat commented, the way she lowered the axe making it clear that nothing dangerous was waiting for them; curious to find out what had happened to the young man, Willow peered past her, swallowing heavily moments later as she saw the reason for Chris' pained cries.

Sniffling to himself, he sat against the wall of the room, clutching at his leg; and biting into said leg were the sharp and rusty spikes of a bear trap, blood dripping from the wounds and to the ground, the dark stain in his crotch showing that the other smell in the room had been caused by him, as well.

"Chris", Willow gained his attention, moving past her partner and to the young man's side, "what happened? Let me look at…"

"Bitch!" he screamed in response, startling her into flinching back from him, but not fast enough to keep him from grabbing her, his hands closing around her shirt and yanking her closer to himself, spittle flying from his mouth and hitting her face as he went on yelling at her. "They took Janine, bitch! They should have taken you! You cunt!"

For a moment, she struggled, tried to get away from his yells and the unbelievable hatred she could feel coming off of him; she had known all the time that he didn't like her, but never would have thought that he actually hated her with such a deep-seated passion, so much that he might have killed her, had he been given the chance.

And that chance he even might have had, before Pat had joined her girlfriend; with the demon there now though, all he got were a few seconds of holding the witch and yelling at her, then the taller woman was there and grabbed both his hands, hard enough to make the bones crack and startle him into silence.

"You have three seconds to let go of her", the demon told him in a dangerously calm voice, with just enough of a growl in it to let it be audible, "or I'll break both your wrists."

She tightened her grip on him even further when he didn't let go at once, and the pain of this brought him back enough to let him react; still with all that hatred on his face, he let go of the witch, who quickly took the chance given and moved away from him, then the quarterback's gaze moved to the demon, the taller woman unimpressed by his glare.

"Good", she said instead of looking intimidated or even worried, "now that you are calm again, you can tell us what exactly happened, and then we'll see what we can do about your leg."

"They took her", Chris replied, sounding strangely numb now that the anger was gone from his voice, "we ran from them when they appeared in the hall and I stepped into this… thing here and started screaming, and they heard and came and took her… They left me here, for later, they'll pick us off one by one, and we'll all die…"

And then, he started to cry again, burying his face in his hands; startled at seeing him so broken all at once, Willow exchanged another worried look with her partner, asking herself what exactly they had gotten into and if maybe, despite the presence of her lover, things wouldn't be resolved as quickly as they thought.


	8. Chapter 8

"Okay, hold still now", Pat mumbled a minute later, moving closer to the still quietly sniffling Chris, "this will probably hurt for a minute or so, but once we got that trap off of you, we can do something about it. Just try not to move."

Somehow, she got through to him, despite his despair; he took a few moments, but then he nodded, gritting his teeth bravely when the demon took hold of the bear trap, Brad and Willow watching in silence how she made sure that she got a good trip on it before she started forcing it open, pained groans and grunts coming from Chris as the spikes were pulled out of his flesh.

With her muscles bulging beneath the sleeves of her shirt and at her back, the taller woman kept up the pressure on the trap's jaws, forcing them apart inch by inch; if this was harder than she had thought it would be, she didn't let it show, only Willow noticing the way her teeth were grit and her jaw was set.

"You almost got it", she decided to give some encouragement, "just a few more inches, then he can pull his leg back, you can do it, Sweetie…"

In response, the demon grit her teeth even harder, until Willow could hear them gnashing against each other; and then, the trap had been opened far enough so Chris could pull his leg out, the quarterback quickly doing so, even though the movement made him cry out in pain and caused more blood to stream down his leg.

"Oh jeez", Brad brought out as he got a closer look at the wound, now that the trap which had caused it was out of the way, Pat taking the time to pull it away from the quarterback before she let go of it and it snapped shut again, with nothing caught between the jaws now; the flesh looked torn and ravaged where the spikes had bit into it, and he thought that he could see something white shine through here and there, convinced that it was bone.

"Don't faint now", Pat warned him, making him nod, even though he did feel quite faint; she gave him another hard look, then her gaze moved to Willow, her voice low when she asked if they should do the spell.

"We have to", Willow gave back, making Brad wonder what exactly they were talking about, "we need him fit and healthy if we want to get out of this, in his current state, he can't even walk, let alone run…"

"And since we don't know how many there are, there might be running soon", Pat sighed, running one hand through her hair, "I should have brought Buffy after all. Oh well, too late now to regret it, I suppose."

Nodding, Willow had a moment to ask herself why exactly her lover had come alone, then shrugged it off, telling herself that she could find out later, perhaps when Pat would tell her how she had known that she was needed; thus, she just moved closer to Chris instead and softly said his name, glad when he looked at her without the raw hatred in his eyes this time.

"I know you don't believe in magic", she told him, "but Pat and I will use just this to help you now. I'll need you to hold Pat's hand and not let go until we tell you to, alright? It might feel a bit unpleasant at first, but I promise it'll make your leg as good as new."

"Delusional", Chris mumbled, but didn't try to pull back when Pat grasped his hand; he briefly looked down on her fingers enclosing his, then let his head slump back against the wall and closed his eyes, not even opening them again when Willow started muttering the spell.

As always when this particular spell was used, the demon's free hand flamed up the moment the witch had said the last word; Brad let out a little gasp, but not even the special effects prompted Chris to open his eyes, his eyelids only shooting upwards moments later, when the healing began, with the fleshy noises which by now were quite familiar to both Willow and Pat.

"Jesus Christ almighty", he brought out in a shocked, tiny voice; just as the redhead had told him to though, he didn't let go of the taller woman's hand, but only tightened his grip on it, something Pat figured he didn't even notice he was doing, his gaze fixed on the closing wounds, the only sign that he had been injured being the tears and holes in his clothes which were all that was left just a few moments later.

"How…", he started, then realized how croaky his voice sounded and cleared his throat, trying again, "how did you do that…?"

"Let's say I heal remarkably fast", Pat was the one to answer that, not wanting to let him know about her true nature, not yet, "and thanks to a little magic, I can give that healing to you, for lack of a better term. Now we'll just have to make sure I won't get injured for a few hours."

"They're gone", Chris mumbled, as if he hadn't even heard what she had said, "they're all gone…"

"They are", Willow confirmed, "but you might take it easy for a few more minutes, I know from personal experience that it keeps hurting for a bit after healing. Our bodies are not made to heal so fast, you know…"

"Thank you", Chris muttered in response, all at once finding it hard to meet her eyes, "for helping me like this…"

"Don't mention it", Pat told him, earning a smile from her lover, since the demon knew very well that the quarterback often had verbally attacked her partner during the last several semesters, "just make sure you don't get hurt again, I can't do this infinitely."

"Yes, sure", the young man agreed at once, coming to his feet, "I'll be more careful now, I promise. Now, can we go look for Janine please?"

"Sure", Willow gave back, coming to her feet as well, glad that the spell had worked; it gave her a moment to wonder if this meant that now, she might be able to use her magic against those creeps as well, then shrugged it off, telling herself that she'd find out sooner or later and that, even if she still couldn't use it, they'd at least have a skilled fighter amongst them now.

"Did you see which way they dragged her off?" Pat wanted to know, making him nod; he gestured down the hallway, and after a moment, she picked up the axe again, prompting Chris to give it a slightly startled look, clearly taken aback by the fact that it wasn't a mere tool for wood chopping, but looked more like something from a movie about the dark ages.

"Where'd you get that", he wanted to know, raising an eyebrow; shrugging, she just told him "I collect", then shouldered the weapon and asked him to lead the way, something he did after another look at the axe, moving down the hallway and deeper into the sanatorium, the rest of the group following him in silence, all of them asking themselves what might await them up ahead.

* * *

Since none of them knew how many of the creeps were around and how close they might be, they kept quiet as they walked through the hallways, Pat having taken the lead by now with Willow close behind her, the demon studying the floor as she walked, searching for anything which might tell them which direction Janine had been taken.

Unlike in the asylum's entrance hall, there wasn't much dust on the floor there to tell them anything; clearly, these hallways were used more often by the strange men and women, making tracking them substantially more difficult, even though the demon clearly wasn't willing to give up just yet.

"Sucks that this place is so big", Willow whispered to her, not wanting to speak too loud since they still had no idea how close any of the creeps might be to them, "and with so many rooms, They could be hiding everywhere."

"Unfortunately, yes", the taller woman gave back, keeping her voice down as well, and not taking her gaze off the floor for a second, "and I wish we knew how many there are…"

"I just want to get out of here", Willow mumbled, glancing left and right at the rooms they were passing, almost expecting one of them to come rushing out at her, "we can alert someone to what is happening here, once we're back in Sunnydale, or come back here with the gang and take care of them."

"Agreed", Pat nodded, glancing back at where Chris and Brad were walking, "these guys are not made for such adventures. Your buddy Brad looks as if he's about to crack."

"Chris doesn't seem all too stable, either", Willow pointed out, making the demon nod yet again – before the black haired woman perked up and frowned, then held up one hand, making them all stop walking, Chris and Brad exchanging worried looks, none of them speaking up though.

Realizing that her partner might need some room to fight any moment now, Willow took a few steps back; the demon took another moment to give her a brief look, then moved closer to the nearest door, raising the axe with one hand while she reached for the doorknob with the other.

Holding her breath, Willow watched how she grasped the knob, then turned it slowly, keeping the noise down; behind her, she could hear Brad and Chris shifting slightly as they moved away from the door a few steps, just in case something gruesome would be waiting behind it.

The moment the door had opened an inch, they could hear the sounds which had attracted the demon's attention, as well, soft smacking and grunting noises; and a few seconds later, they could see the cause of them, as well, one of the creeps hunching on the floor with his back to them, chomping down on something the witch identified as a human arm moments later, her stomach turning at the sight.

Still she gave her best to not make any noise, knowing that this would give them away at once; apparently, the creature hadn't heard the door open, but groaning or even vomiting surely would be noticed, and from the way Pat was sneaking closer to the man, it was clear that the demon wanted to finish this quickly and quietly.

Holding her breath yet again, she watched how the taller woman moved closer and closer, then raised the axe; and a second later, it came down in a hard arc of glinting steel, neatly separating the man's head from the rest of his body before he even realized what was going on.

"Nice", Brad mumbled, now daring to come closer as well; the demon briefly glanced at him, then down on the dead man again, wiping her axe on the rags he was wearing as she replied. "Thanks. Been a while since I did a stealth kill. Anyone of you know whom this… arm belongs to?"

"Not Janine", Chris declined at once, his relief evident, "I'm not sure what any of the others was wearing, but she wasn't wearing red…"

"Craig maybe, or Vivien", Willow sighed, "we have to find the others before any more of them get killed."

"I wonder if the rest made it here", Brad thought out loud, looking around as if he expected some of them to pop up any second, "and if so, if they ran into any of those guys… And if Professor Rimmon is still alive…"

"Unlikely", the quarterback sighed, making them all look at him, "if this is Craig, or part of him, well, the professor was with him…"

"Maybe he ran off", Brad argued back, crossing his arms over his chest, "we don't know. We don't even know if that is Craig, or someone else. Maybe they're both still alive…"

"If they are, standing around here and discussing won't help to keep them that way", Pat butted in before the other man had a chance to reply, "we should move on, we got one of them, but there are quite a few more out there."

"Way to ruin the mood", Chris grumbled, then nodding his agreement though, "fine, then, lead the way. You seem to be awfully good at this."

"I work out", the demon shrugged, then moved back to the door and opened it; she took a moment to look around, making sure nothing was waiting for them out on the hallway, then stepped outside again, the rest of the group following, glancing around nervously as they walked along behind her, giving their best to keep the fear and nervousness banned to the back of their minds.


	9. Chapter 9

During the course of the next hour, they ran into three more of the deformed creeps, two women and one man; Pat made short work of all of them, even though one of the women put up more of a fight than they had thought she would, almost managing to disarm the demon before she died of a sudden case of axe to the skull.

To their dismay though, they found neither Janine, nor anyone else of their group; thanks to the size of the sanatorium though, they knew it'd take several more hours to search it thoroughly, something they had opted for after a brief discussion during which Chris had suggested to just leave, arguing that by now, most of the others were probably dead, anyway.

It hadn't really surprised him that the others hadn't agreed, and had told him no immediately; there had been a bit more discussion, and finally, he had given in, realizing that he didn't stand a chance alone and would most likely end up eaten if he tried to get out of this on his own.

"I'm hungry", he now grumbled, his willingness to work along evaporated by now, "and thirsty. Can't we rest for a little bit, and see if we can find something to eat?"

"I'm hungry, too", Brad agreed, either meaning it or trying to placate him after their disagreement, "I'd kill for a sausage…"

"Sausage sounds nice", Willow sighed out, only to roll her eyes moments later as Chris smirked at her, clearly already having forgotten what Pat and she had done for him, or perhaps deciding to ignore it as he just had to take the chance given for some of his well-known teasing.

"You want sausage", he told the redhead, gesturing at his crotch as he went on, "I got one right here."

"Tacky much?" the demon grumbled, rolling her good eye as well, while Willow snorted, her response making the taller woman chuckle while Brad smirked slightly. "Thanks, but so not my taste. And I'd be careful with yelling about this too loud, one of them might hear you and decide to take a taste of your sausage."

To her relief, that shut him up quite effectively; he gulped, then looked away, and she glanced at her partner in concern – so far, she had reacted remarkably calm about his behaviour, but she knew that this could change within the blink of an eye, the moment the demon would decide that she'd had enough of the quarterback's idiocy now and that it was time to shut him up.

"There'll be more than enough food once we found the others and can get out of here", the black haired woman now said, distracting her from those thoughts and making her look at her again, "and the sooner we move on, the sooner we'll find them. One way or another."

"Fine", Chris grumbled, "let's go then, I'm sick of running around in this place. It's cold and creepy and it smells bad."

"Hence why they like it", Willow mumbled, earning another smirk from her partner; she briefly smiled back, the smile vanishing from her face though when the sound of hurried footsteps reached her ears, Pat immediately reacting to them by pushing her behind herself, then raising her axe, her grip on it tightening as the footsteps approached the wooden door just a few feet ahead.

Shifting slightly into a fighting stance which would give her better balance, the taller woman never let her gaze waver from the door; and seconds later, it flew open, surprised noises coming from all of them as they saw who had entered while, just as surprised, the demon lowered her weapon again.

"Professor Rimmon!" Willow was the first one to break the stunned silence which had taken over her group, only interrupted by the heavy pants of the elder man, "you're alive!"

"Yes", he panted out in response, giving them a moment to take in his torn clothes and the cuts visible through some of the tears, "barely… I had to leave Craig behind, I'm sorry, but they would have killed us both…" His face paled, and he swayed on his feet, prompting Pat, who stood closest to him, to drop her axe and rush forward to grab him, her voice surprisingly kind when she told him to take it easy.

"Sit down", she advised him, helping him to do just that, "you'll be of no use if you just faint. Take a few minutes, you look as if you ran for hours."

"Feel like I did just that", Rimmon panted, leaning against the wall and briefly closing his eyes; since it was clear that there wouldn't be any moving within the next few minutes, the rest sat down as well, figuring that it'd be wiser to conserve their energies instead of just standing around.

"Hey", Willow mumbled to her partner as she moved closer to her, while Brad started asking the professor about details of his escape, "you still didn't tell me how you knew that we need you here."

"Oh, that was kinda freaky", the demon gave back, finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up, a slight smirk on her face again as she spoke on after taking a long drag of the cancer stick, making the witch realize that she hadn't had a smoke since she had joined them.

"I was standing in the kitchen, minding my own business", Pat went on, "just getting ready to have some coffee, when this bright flash of light went off right in my brain, along with your voice crying out my name really loud. I dropped my coffee mug and it gave me a nosebleed. You owe me a new mug. And then, when I had almost made it here, it happened again, only it wasn't as intense the second time, no blood then."

"Oh wow", the witch gave back, surprised, "I'm sorry… I didn't even know I did this…"

"It was like a magical distress call", Pat let her know, "perhaps you did it unintentionally. And a good thing you did it, or else I wouldn't have known that I need to follow you. I got really worried when I found the broken down bus with the partially eaten driver."

"Why didn't you bring Buffy?" Willow wanted to know in reply, smiling when the demon reached out and grasped her hand, holding it tenderly, shrugging and taking another drag of her cigarette before she replied.

"There was no time to get her", she explained, "so I called and left a message on her answering machine. She'll probably show up here looking for us sooner or later."

"Most likely", Willow agreed, "it's too bad our phones don't work, or we could have warned her."

"I'm sure she'll be fine", Pat reassured her, moving closer to her so she could put one arm around her, "we'll all be fine. I promise."

"I know", Willow gave back, snuggling further into the embrace, not caring anymore that Chris, Brad and the professor were watching, "you're here now, so it'll all be okay."

She smiled at the taller woman, then leaned up to kiss her briefly, but tenderly; and for once, Chris kept his mouth shut while Brad and the professor politely glanced away, neither the witch, nor the demon noticing this though, both of them simply glad that they were in this together and knowing that in the end, things would be alright.


	10. Chapter 10

"They don't seem to use this area of the sanatorium much", Rimmon told them ten minutes later, after finally having regained his breath, "I think they are more in the… middle of the complex. And in the cellars. I only saw one of them alive as I was looking for you guys, and three dead ones. Was that you?"

"Her", Brad gave back, gesturing at Pat, "she's… really good with that axe. She saved Willow and me from one of them, too, back at the entrance."

"So I guessed right", Rimmon gave back, sounding oddly proud of himself, "from the way you… hold yourself, for lack of a better word, and judging your grip on that axe, I figured you're some sort of fighter."

"Something like that, yes", Pat agreed, curious where this might lead, a question the professor answered a few seconds later.

"I heard them drag off one of the girls", he went on, "and we really should go look for her, and the rest. But if we all go at once, we might attract their attention, so perhaps if you and me would go… Just to, I don't know, scout ahead and make sure we know where they are before we move in to save them…"

"Yes", Pat agreed after a moment, prompting Willow to give her a worried look, the expression on the redhead's face making her reach over and grasp her hand, giving her best to sound reassuring as she spoke on. "Rimmon's right, if all of us go there, we'll only end up making too much noise and they'll notice us for sure. And we'll come back here once we know where exactly they are, and get you guys so we can kick some ass."

"Also, if they don't use this part of the sanatorium often, we can wait here safely", Brad added, making Chris nod at once, both of them clearly not all too keen about kicking ass, "that'll be better than just running around aimlessly."

"…fine", Willow agreed at last, having to admit that they were all making sense and thus probably right, "but be careful, okay? And come right back here once you know where they took the girl. Or girls."

"I'll be careful", Pat reassured her in response, giving her another, hopefully calming smile, "and the moment we know where they are, we'll come back here and get you guys. Take care until then, alright?"

"Of course", the witch gave back, "we'll be safer here than you'll be, searching for those girls."

"We'll be fine", the demon told her once more, then briefly hugged her; afterwards, she gave Rimmon a look, and he gestured at one of the doors in response, telling her that they had gone that way.

"Lead the way, then", the taller woman gave back, making him nod in response; he took another look at the students, then turned and started walking, with Pat right behind him, having shouldered her weapon again and glancing around while she followed the professor.

"So", Rimmon spoke after a while, even though he kept his voice low so any creeps which might be nearby wouldn't hear him, "you're the girlfriend of my most brilliant student, then. I've seen you around on campus before, but you're not studying there, are you?"

"Not anymore", Pat gave back, wondering if this was the best time for small talk, "I dropped out a few years ago."

"I imagine it is challenging to keep up with a mind like Willow's", Rimmon continued, prompting her to raise an eyebrow as she asked herself where he was going with this, "God knows I sometimes have trouble to follow her train of thought, it's simply too fast at times."

"Yeah, well", the demon replied, still not sure if this was going anywhere, "I guess I handle it just fine. We have been together for quite some time by now, after all."

"Lucky you", the professor smiled at her, leading her through yet another door and down another dim and damp hallway, the two of them by now quite far from the little group they had left behind, "and of course Willow's a lucky one, as well, blessed with such a brilliant mind and a partner willing to her support her through anything. Even a group of cannibals after her."

"Good thing I work out", the demon commented, figuring that this might explain her above average strength and her skill with the axe well enough, "makes dealing with those creeps easier."

"Indeed", Rimmon nodded, "keep in mind I'm not an expert, but it looked like the ones you dealt with didn't stand much of a chance."

"Nope", Pat amiably agreed, moving the axe from her right shoulder to her left, "they weren't that skilled at fighting. One of them put up a bit of a fight, but, well…"

She shrugged, since Rimmon knew how the fight had ended; the professor smiled at her, then briefly stopped and glanced around, settling for the hallway leading to the right afterwards, the taller woman right behind him.

"Not far anymore now", he let her know, "they took her this way, and we're almost in the middle of the complex. I wonder how long they have been living here…"

"And how many people they captured and ate", Pat grimly added, straining her ears in an attempt to determine if any of them were nearby, "I bet you're not the first student group ending up here."

"If we aren't, they kept it under wraps quite well", Rimmon muttered, glancing over his shoulder and at her, "because I researched this place thoroughly before I took them here. I thought it'd be a nice change to the regular courses…"

"Well, you meant well", Pat shrugged, giving him a slight smile, even though he couldn't see it since he was looking up ahead again, "I suppose no one expected something like this to happen."

"Of course not", the professor gave back, then stopped walking all at once and froze, even holding his breath; behind him, the demon stopped as well, giving him a questioning look and prompting him to gesture at a door up ahead, at the end of the hallway.

"I heard something", he whispered, barely audible, "behind that door…"

"Stay behind me", she told him in reply, waiting for his nod before she moved past him and pushed the door open, the axe raised, only to find herself in what apparently had been a storage closet when the sanatorium still had been in use, even with a broom still in one of the corners.

"Nothing here", she let him know, turning around to face him again, "I don't know where they are, but whatever you heard, it was not behind this door."

"I know", Rimmon gave back, and she had a second to notice the strange glint in his eyes – and then he moved forward and rammed the knife which suddenly had appeared in his hand into her stomach, the glint she now identified as the sign of an unstable mind never leaving his gaze.

* * *

"Shhht", Rimmon whispered as Pat let out a strangled gurgle, still clutching the knife tightly as he wrapped his free arm around her, keeping her upright while the axe clattered to the floor, "don't try to fight. I don't want you to feel any pain."

As if to contradict himself, he pushed the knife in further, then pulled it upwards, earning another choked noise from the demon, blood blubbering from her mouth; still he kept holding her, his voice low and strangely kind as he mumbled into her ear.

"You're about to go into shock", he told her, ignoring her feeble attempts to push him back, her strength already leaving her, "just let it happen. It'll be soothing, no more pain, no more fear… Like slipping into a hot bath."

While he said the last few words, he lowered her to the ground, the strength by now having gone out of her legs; still he kept the knife where it was, smiling down on her as she groaned in pain, blood trickling from the wound and from both corners of her mouth.

"…w-why?" she brought out after struggling against blacking out for a few seconds; in response Rimmon chuckled slightly, eliciting yet another wet-sounding gurgle from her as he jerked the knife back out.

"You're a danger to them", he then told her, using her shirt to wipe the knife clean, then hiding it away again in the sheathe at his back, "and I can't let that happen. I've been planning this for so long, and now that I finally got an offering they will accept… It's nothing personal, really."

He moved past her, giving her a second to wonder what was happening now – before she felt him grasp her beneath her armpits, followed by him dragging her into the broom closet, another groan coming from her as the movement brought up fresh pain in the wound he had inflicted on her.

"I wish I could make you more comfortable", he sighed as he dropped her rather unceremoniously, "but, on the other hand, you'll be dead in not all too long, so I suppose you'll have other worries than a pillow for your head. And, oh, don't worry… I'll make sure they won't make your beloved Willow suffer before they eat her."

He chuckled, then came to his feet again, looking down on her, his eyes now hard and cold, uncaring and unimpressed by what he had done to her, by the blood which was pooling beneath her back and trickling from her mouth.

"They'll listen to me, about Willow", he told her, reaching for the door of the broom closet, "they know I'm fond of her. And once it's done, they won't want to disappoint their brother…"

He gave her another smile while she let out a shocked gasp, then slammed the door close, leaving her in total darkness; she heard his footsteps move away from the door, realizing with cold dread moments later that there was no way for the others to know what had happened, and just the tiniest chance for them to find her in time, all of them trusting Rimmon and thinking that he was on their side in this whole mess.

Gritting her teeth in an attempt to ignore the raging pain in her stomach and the feeling of warm blood still trickling from the wound, trying not to wonder how badly he actually had injured her and if any vital organs had been sliced up, blinding pain answering those unasked questions when she tried to sit up and immediately found herself flat on her back again, the flow of blood from the wound increasing even further.

 _Get up,_ she told herself, feeling the oncoming embrace of unconsciousness and giving her best to not give in to it, _you have to get up, he'll get them all killed if you don't get up and change and heal, damn you!_

With another groan, she managed to get on her uninjured side, then placed one hand on the ground in an attempt to push herself up; she even managed to get a few inches away from the floor, then slumped back down, desperately groaning out her partner's name as she finally lost the battle and unconsciousness took her.


	11. Chapter 11

"They've been gone way too long", Willow mumbled, checking her watch yet again, "something must have happened to them…"

"So what should we do?" Brad wanted to know, sounding slightly nervous, as if he already knew where this was leading, "go look for them? Professor Rimmon said we should wait here…"

"But not for so long", Willow argued back, "they said they just wanted to go look, that shouldn't take so long. Pat's good at this, they should have been back after half an hour, an hour at the most…"

Not sure what to reply to this, Brad just shrugged helplessly, the witch running both hands through her hair in exasperation – before she came to her feet all at once, fast enough to startle both men into flinching.

"I'll go look for them", she decided, putting on her Resolve Face as if to underline her words, "if you want to stay here, stay, but I'll go and find out if they're okay."

"I'll stay", Chris gave back at once, not really surprising her, but saying exactly what she had expected him to; to her dismay though, Brad shrugged yet again, finding it hard to meet her eyes when he mumbled that he'd rather stay, as well.

"…fine", the redhead told them both after a moment, "wait here, then. I'll try not to take too long."

"Be careful", Brad mumbled, now finding the floor between his legs quite interesting; he glanced up at her, and for a moment, she thought he'd tell her that he had changed his mind and would come along after all, then he looked down on the floor again, making it clear that he would do no such thing.

"I'll take care", she let him know, glancing around for something she could use as a weapon, to her dismay not finding anything though, "I'll hurry. Wait here."

Both men nodded in response, and she held back about a snide comment about how brave they were in the face of danger; instead, she set off alone, walking into the direction the professor and Pat had taken, keeping her gaze on the ground as she tried to remember what the demon had told her about tracking people.

To her dismay, this wasn't much; they only had discussed it briefly once, after the taller woman had used those skills to find a demon they had been after in a rather large and labyrinthine cave, and Buffy had wanted to know how she had done it.

 _The trick is to not let yourself get too stuck on a certain track,_ she remembered, even hearing the words in Pat's hoarse voice, the only effect the smoking seemed to have on her, _or you might actually end up following the wrong one. Keep your mind open, it's not that hard if you know what you're looking for._

"Easier said than done", Willow mumbled to herself, keeping her gaze fixed on the floor while she strained her ears for any noise which might tell her either about where her partner and the professor were or alert her to the presence of the creeps; thanks to the fact that there wasn't as much dust on the floor in this area of the sanatorium as there had been in the entrance hall, it wasn't easy to make out footsteps, but here and there, she could spot some, the size and pattern matching her lover's boots, telling her that she was going the right way.

 _I wish we had a spell like Tara and I had,_ she thought to herself, briefly grimacing at the fact that so far, they hadn't thought of this, _then it'd be much easier to find her…_

She froze at a noise from not too far away, some sort of low grunt; trying to even breathe soundlessly, she stood perfectly still, straining her ears until it almost made her head ache in an attempt to figure out where the noise had come from and if it would come up again.

When everything remained quiet, she slowly let out a heavy breath, feeling sweat trickle down her back; after this brief episode, she realized in what big danger she might actually be, all alone in this freakishly big building, with her magic apparently not working against the strange men and women.

 _You better find them quick,_ she told herself, not even allowing herself to acknowledge the possibility that both of them might be hurt or worse, _maybe you don't have the finding spell you shared with Tara, but you're one of the most powerful witches on the planet, dammit, you can do this…_

Taking in a deep breath, she closed her eyes, focused on her lover, conjuring an image of her in front of her inner eye, with each and every detail she could think of, no matter how tiny, reaching for her magic the moment she could be sure it was detailed enough, silently asking the spirits to guide her and to lead her to her lover's side.

And when she opened her eyes again, the proof that her magic had worked just fine was there, right in front of her eyes – a small flicker of light, bobbing up and down slightly as if waiting for further instruction, making her smile slightly at how well the conjuring had worked.

"Take me to her", she whispered, not wanting to make too much noise; in response, the light flickered slightly, then started moving, to her relief not zooming off at high speed, but floating ahead at a pace slow enough to let her follow it comfortably, without forcing her to speed up and thus maybe make too much noise.

Still she kept her attention not only on the small light, but also on her surroundings, eager to pick up any noises which might alert her to the presence of any of the creeps; whenever her concentration was moving away from the light too much, it stopped floating, patiently waiting for her to look at it again before it'd move on.

Even though the light was guiding her, Willow made sure to remember where it was leading her, not wanting to get lost on the way back; with her gaze flickering back and forth between her surroundings and the small light, she let it lead her through the building, frowning when it stopped in front of a door at last, a sign on the ground in front of it telling her that it had been used a supply closet when the place had still been active.

"Are you sure?" she asked the light, ignoring how stupid this momentarily made her feel, "why would she be in there?"

In response, the light bobbed up and down a few times, and for a moment, she was irrationally sure that it would look and sound indignant, had it been equipped with a face and voice; and then, it vanished into nothingness, now that apparently, its work had been done.

"Huh", Willow let out, not sure what to think of this; then, she figured that it wouldn't hurt to take a look, still taking a few moments to press her ears against the door and make sure nothing hostile was waiting for her behind it before she grasped the handle and pulled it open.

And seconds later, she felt as if someone had doused her in ice-cold water, her heart skipping a beat before it started racing painfully fast in her chest; feeling faint for a few dreadful seconds, she grabbed the doorframe for support, forcing herself to take a few deep breaths, telling herself that she wouldn't drop down unconscious now, that she couldn't help her lover if she fainted now.

 _If you still can help her at all,_ she thought to herself, taking in how pale the taller woman was, how still she laid there, and all the blood, so much of it that at first, she wasn't even sure where it was coming from; the thought that she might be too late at least succeeded though with keeping her from fainting and tore her out of her reverie, her heart still hammering up to her throat as she moved into the small one room as fast as she dared and knelt down next to her partner.

"Pat", she said the first thing which came to her mind, touching the taller woman's shoulder in a helpless attempt to wake her up, "come on, just… please don't be dead…"

Now that she was closer to her lover, she could, to her relief, see that she was breathing, and also heard her slightly raspy breaths; from the drag marks she now spotted on the floor, and the bloodstains right next to them, stains she had ignored as old and thus unimportant just moments ago, she found herself piecing together what had happened, not having an idea how far she was from the truth.

 _They attacked her, and then they put her in here,_ she thought to herself while her gaze moved over the taller woman's body, unable to find the injury though, and realizing a few seconds later why – intent on using her transformation to heal, the demon had tried to stand up, but had slumped back down, now lying on her stomach and thus probably on whatever dreadful wound had been inflicted on her.

For a moment, she wasn't sure what to do, knowing that she couldn't help her in any way as long as she didn't know where and how badly she was hurt, but also aware of how much worse she might make things by moving her too much; then, with another deep breath, she made her choice, carefully grasping her and turning her over, her stomach turning yet again when she finally got a good glimpse at the wound, briefly making her feeling faint and nauseous at the same time.

"You'll be okay", she still made herself say, even though she wasn't sure the demon could actually hear her or was too far gone by now, and even though she could see now how dreadfully she had been injured, a jagged and long wound from which blood still was seeping, "I promise, you'll be fine…"

Now pushing all concerns about hurting her even worse aside, she pulled the unconscious woman into her arms, held her close to herself as she closed her eyes again and started focusing on her magic, on the healing; and while she did so, she found herself wondering how they would get out of this, and how many more of them would get hurt until it'd finally be over.


	12. Chapter 12

She didn't know how long she sat there, slowly and patiently working her magic, knowing healing was delicate work and that a million things could go wrong, by the time she heard the footsteps; automatically, she tensed up, protectively tightening her embrace around her lover, only to relax again when Brad and Chris rounded the corner, then both stopped dead in their tracks, clearly shocked by the scene.

"Oh my God", Brad finally was the one to break the silence, moving over to where Willow still sat in the supply closet, her partner lying halfway in her lap, "what… is she…?"

"No", Willow gave back, answering his question before he could finish it, "she's not, and I'm trying to keep her that way…"

"…how?" Chris wanted to know, making his way to them as well and crouching down next to Brad, his face paling visibly when he got a closer look at the wound, "with magic…?"

"Yes", the witch confirmed, trying hard to not let her concentration slip too much, "I just have to… stabilize her, and heal her enough so she'll wake up and be able to stand, it's… very delicate work…"

"Didn't look so delicate when you were healing me", Chris pointed out, the way he kept his gaze away from the dreadful injury making it clear that his words stemmed more from a need to take his mind off the sight than from a real interest; still, Willow answered him, keeping the brunt of her focus on the demon though, eager to make her well enough so she'd be able to heal the rest on her own.

"When we healed you, it was different", she let him know, "it's… an ability she has, not like my magic. So I have to be careful, or her… magical essence, I suppose, might clash with mine, and make her even worse…"

Briefly, she had a horrid mental image of the injury tearing and widening, spilling even more blood than it had so far, then hurriedly pushed it aside, telling herself that surely, this wouldn't happen – after all, it was going well so far, the flow of blood having stopped by now, her magic now working on closing the wound from within, at least enough so the demon would wake up and be capable of doing the rest.

"Who did this?" Brad wanted to know, frowning as an inconsistency about the whole situation came to him, "if it was… them, why leave her there? Why not take her along to eat her?"

"Probably too old for their liking", Willow mumbled without thinking, something she regretted moments later as now, both Chris and Brad were frowning, the quarterback saying out loud what they both were thinking.

"What do you mean, too old", he wanted to know, still refusing to take another look at the couple, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on the wall instead, "she's just a few years older than you."

"That's what she looks like", the witch gave back with a sigh, figuring that she might as well tell them the truth now, before they'd find out the hard way once Pat had woken up and would change to heal, "but… She's older than she looks. Much, much older."

"What are you talking about?" Brad wanted to know, exchanging a look with Chris, "you're not telling us she's… I don't know, immortal or something?"

"She used to be", Willow let them both know, ignoring the way they stared at her as if she was some sort of crazy person, briefly feeling a pang of regret again as she thought of how exactly her partner had lost her immortality, "she… gave it away. Long story. And she's over two hundred and forty… Even though she doesn't like to hear it."

"You're kidding, right", Chris flatly gave back, looking at her with disbelief all over his face, "you're upset cause she's all hurt or something, there's no way she's… that old."

"She's a demon", Willow sighed as an explanation, earning a surprised huff from the two young men, "they don't age the way we do. She didn't, either, as I said, she was immortal, but… She's not, not anymore."

"She can set her hands on fire", Brad threw in, remembering that he already had told Willow about this earlier, "I thought she's a witch, like Willow… And she did it again when they healed you. Only you didn't see cause your eyes were closed."

"Right", Chris gave back, frowning, "I can't deny you did something… supernatural when you healed my leg. You and her, or whatever. But all this talk about immortality, and demons? That's crazy. So why isn't she immortal anymore then? Her delusion about that ended and you just played along?"

"No", Willow snapped, harsher than she had intended, unable to believe his gall, insulting them both even now, when Pat was badly hurt and out cold, after what they both had done for him, "actually, I got killed and she gave it up to save me."

"…right", the quarterback repeated, then moved a few inches back, having seen something in her eyes he never would have expected there, something dark and dangerous and gruesome, willing to hurt him the moment he said the wrong thing now; and then, Willow took in a deep breath and whatever it was vanished from her gaze, her eyes filled with worry and love again as she glanced down on her lover.

"You must have quite the… interesting life", Brad mumbled, making the witch nod in response; she briefly glanced at him to smile at him, then concentrated on the healing again, slowly and carefully working her magic, still afraid of doing it too fast and making her lover worse instead of better.

To her dismay though, she only had a minute of focusing on the magic, then footsteps came up in the distance, tearing her out of her concentration yet again as she tensed up in fear; next to her, Brad and Chris set up straighter, as well, the three of them exchanging worried looks –before the quarterback started to look around, demanding to know in a low voice where her girlfriend's axe was.

"I don't know", she whispered back, glancing around uneasily as she heard the footsteps approach, "it wasn't here when I found her, they must have taken it…"

"Dammit", Chris grumbled, looking around for something else he could use as a weapon; before he could spot something though, the by now familiar snuffling sounds reached their ears, all three of them freezing when two of the creeps appeared at the other end of the hallway.

"You", one of them snarled, gesturing at the small group, "you come. Now."

"Oh God", Brad whimpered, looking as if he might faint on the spot; the two, one man and one woman, glared at him in response, then moved closer, managing to appear quite menacing even though none of them was carrying any weapons.

"Come", the woman snarled again, gesturing impatiently with one hand, baring black and ruined teeth when none of them made a move, "follow."

"Stay away", Chris brought out in a trembling voice in reply, coming to his feet and raising his fists in a helpless threat; in response, the man let out a snarl, moving to stand in front of the woman, briefly and absurdly reminding Willow of how Pat would do the same for her every time it looked as if fighting was about to happen.

"Come", the woman said again, a hint of impatience in her voice now, "or taken. Choice."

"Fuck you", Chris snapped in response; the woman let out another snarl – and then both of them moved forward with shocking speed, attacking the small group, making it clear that in the end, they never had had much of a choice about coming with them.

* * *

Even though she knew what being taken by those two would mean in the end, Willow couldn't bring herself to use magic on them, still remembering well what had happened the last time she had tried; and even though both Brad and Chris put up quite the fight, they ended up overpowered in the end, the man taking both of them out with frightening ease while the woman focused on the redhead, ignoring her attempts to fight back and, after a brief scuffle, slamming her head against the wall hard enough to daze her, even though it didn't quite knock her out.

Groaning, struggling to stay conscious, she felt the woman grab her collar, then she was dragged over the dusty ground, feeling blood trickle down her cheek; upon turning her head, she saw that at least, they weren't leaving her lover behind, the woman having a tight grip on her with her other hand and pulling her along.

Following the woman, the man was strolling along, showing his strength by how easily he was carrying Brad and Chris, having slung them over his shoulders; if one or both of them was still conscious, they didn't let it show, hanging in his grip limply.

Still fighting hard to stay conscious, there wasn't much Willow could do as the woman dragged Pat and her through the hallways; there were moments of more pain, when she thumped down a staircase, clearly not caring if she hurt the two by pulling them down the steps like that, then they finally had reached their destination – a large cellar room, where several more of the creeps were sitting and lying around, the stench of blood and rotten flesh nearly making the witch vomit as she glanced around, a helpless whimper escaping her when she spotted Sylvie and Barrold, the latter obviously dead, hanging from a hook in the ceiling, while the girl was still alive, crying softly as she laid in some sort of cage, blood dripping from the rather gruesome looking wounds in her legs.

Clearly intending to keep them all in the cage for later, the woman and the man moved over to it, the other creeps watching with interest, none of them making a move though; grunting, the woman hauled at first Willow, then Pat into the cage, the witch hurrying to cushion her lover's fall, not wanting her to get injured even worse, despite how drowsy she was still feeling after the hit to her head.

"Stay", the woman snarled while her companion dropped Chris and Brad, as well, "good."

Not sure what she should reply, since they didn't have much of a choice anyway, Willow scrambled away from her, then pulled the still unconscious demon into a tender embrace again; thanks to the rough treatment, the wound had started bleeding again, not as much as before, a mere trickle, but enough to make the redhead worry about it once more.

"We're in deep shit now", Brad whispered while Chris crawled over to where Sylvie was sitting, asking her in a low voice if she knew anything about the others; to his dismay, she didn't reply though, merely sobbing quietly, acting as if she hadn't even heard him.

"Yes", Willow mumbled in agreement, glancing at the men and women uneasily, a few of them looking back at her, but most paying them no attention at all, "even if we could get out of this cage, there are so many of them… I don't know if we…"

She trailed off as her wandering gaze fell on a fire the creeps had made at the far end of the room, and she saw what they were roasting over the flames, a strangled noise coming from her as she fought to keep her stomach's contents where they belonged.

"What?" Brad asked next to her, sounding alarmed, "what is it? Willow, what…"

Finally, he managed to follow her gaze, and saw what she had noticed, falling silent in shock; swallowing heavily, he tore his eyes away from the gruesome sight again, from the spit they had put up over the fire and the human torso which was slowly roasting over the flames, a small group of the creepy men and women watching with greedy looks in their deformed faces.

"You think that's…" Brad started, looking at the witch again, fighting hard to not glance at the gruesome display again; shrugging, Willow gave him a helpless look, once more realizing in how much trouble she and the others were.

"Could be", she then mumbled, keeping her voice low so Chris wouldn't hear and maybe freak out, "it's obviously from a female, you can see the…"

Before she could finish the sentence, she lost the battle against the nausea, somehow managing to turn away from Pat and him before she threw up, hot tears filling her eyes; and while the young man moved to hold her hair back, she could hear how the creeps started laughing, just a few at first, then more and more, until they were all howling with laughter, only making it clear once more that they couldn't expect even a bit of mercy from them.


	13. Chapter 13

"I'm better", Willow mumbled a few minutes later, moving to lean her back against the stone wall, with Pat still in her arms, even though the magic wasn't flowing again, not yet, "I'm okay, really…"

"I wish we had some water", Brad mumbled, giving a concerned look, "that would make you feel better…"

"I doubt they'll give us any", the witch sighed, almost absent-mindedly caressing her lover's hair as she glanced at the creeps, none of them paying their prisoners any mind anymore, "they don't really care how we are, as long as they can eat us…"

"You know", Chris now joined the conversation as well, moving closer to them, having been unable to get anything but sobs from Sylvie, "I noticed something… They didn't take your girl here earlier, when they stabbed her, but they took her now without as much a second of hesitation. Why?"

"…I don't know", Willow had to admit after a moment, "maybe… they changed their minds. If they even think the way we do…"

"Also, they… got Janine", the quarterback went on after a few seconds of pondering this, clearly having noticed the spit as well and, to the witch's surprise, reacting remarkably calm to it, "but where's the professor? He's not in here with us, and I don't see him anywhere else here, either."

"Maybe he ran off while they were… hurting Pat", Brad hazarded, "saving his own skin…Not very brave, but we can hardly blame him, right…?"

"No", Willow agreed, "we can't, but… I don't know, it's just a hunch, but I have a feeling that this isn't what happened…"

"Then what?" Brad wanted to know, frowning, while Chris gave her a thoughtful look; feeling helpless, she shrugged, not sure how to explain her feeling, not even sure if it was just something brought on by their unpleasant situation or if it was her magic, somehow working through her instincts.

"I don't know", she told him, "as I said, I don't know, it might be just a hunch or nothing at all. I just have a feeling that…"

She trailed off when the creeps closest to the cage became excited, talking amongst each other in a language she hardly understood while they kept staring at the door separating the large room from the stairway; and then, said door opened and her blood ran cold as Professor Rimmon came strolling into the room, glancing at the cage, the way he raised an eyebrow in surprise at seeing Pat in her arms telling her everything about who had harmed her partner and why she had been hidden in the supply closet after the deed had been done.

"Professor!" Brad called out, clearly much slower on the uptake than she was, "take care, get out! They're all…here…"

He fell silent when he realized that none of the creeps was making a move to attack the elder man, his face paling all at once as he realized what was going on; behind him, Chris gasped, Rimmon still smiling as he moved closer to the cage and looked at them.

"So", he then said, crossing his arms over his chest, "they finally got the rest of you. Honestly, I was starting to get worried. And I see you found your lover before her demise."

He gestured vaguely at the demon, then noticed the shocked look on the face of Brad and Chris, while Sylvie just kept sobbing quietly – and Willow was glaring at him, with a look so fierce that he would have dropped dead, if looks could've killed.

"You're not shocked, are you, Miss Rosenberg", he asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement, "you're just angry. So you figured it out before I said anything, did you."

"The moment you were surprised to see Pat still alive", Willow gave back, her voice cold, "why are you doing this? And why did you hurt her?"

"She's a danger to them", Rimmon replied, unperturbed by her anger, "and honestly, it wasn't planned for her to come here and start killing them off. Just out of interest, how did you manage to contact her? I know for a fact cell phones don't work here."

"None of your business", the witch snapped, hoping he wasn't one of the few with a natural inclination for magic as she kept working the healing spell, hoping her partner would wake up in time to keep them all from grievous harm; he just chuckled in response, then shrugged, an evil glint in his eyes as he replied.

"Well, I suppose in the long run, it doesn't matter", he told them, "they will never find out what happened to all of you. You were the last few still out there, and now that we got you as well…"

"Why are you doing this?" Chris demanded to know, sounding as if he was close to tears yet again, "working with… them, and getting all of us killed?"

Almost, Willow gave him a grateful look, since he had bought her more time with his question, time she needed to continue the healing; and still, Rimmon seemed to have no idea what she was doing, now not even looking at her anymore, but focusing on the quarterback, still smiling happily, as if he wasn't sending them all to their deaths.

"He's one of them, can't you see", Brad mumbled before the elder man could say something though, "they're not attacking him or anything. They just look at him."

"More or less one of them, yes", Rimmon agreed, making Chris gasp, "I suppose you could say I'm a half-brother to most of them, seeing how fond they are of inbreeding, unfortunately. Just one of the things I'll stop, once they accept me as their leader."

He started walking up and down in front of the cage, now sounding just like he had when he had been holding lectures at university, even sounding the same as he went on, even though this time, he clearly didn't care if his small audience was actually listening to him.

"Wanting to know where one is from, a very natural urge, as I surely mentioned in my class a few times", he said, now not even looking at them anymore, but at the creeps all around them, most of them looking back at him curiously, a few with something close to admiration in their eyes.

"For as long as she lived, my mother refused to tell me about my father", he continued, "and I had to wait until she'd died to actually find out about him. But after some digging and talking to relatives, I finally learned the truth, and I have to admit, at first I was a bit shocked to learn that I was the product of rape. Turns out my mother had a run-in with these guys here and one of them got… a little frisky with her, before she got away."

"What a way to put it", Brad mumbled, prompting the elder man to shrug; glancing at him again, he smiled once more, looking so absurdly happy that it showed them all quite well what the discovery had done to his sanity.

"So I sought them out", he went on, gesturing at the watching creeps, "and apparently, my smell or something told them I'm one of them, because they didn't attack me on sight. Of course, they wouldn't accept me into the family at once, so I brought them an offering."

"Us", Willow added, glaring at him, to his surprise clearly not scared at all, something he shrugged off as caused by shock though; smiling again, he nodded, briefly glancing at the creeps all around again before he went on.

"Yes, you", he confirmed verbally as well, "it's a shame to waste such brilliant young minds, really, but, well… The things we do for our families, right?"

And with those words, he reached into his pocket and brought out an old, rusty key; he unlocked the cage's gate and pulled it open, smiling at the creeps as he gestured at the captives, still sounding strangely jolly and happy as he spoke up yet again, his words making both Chris and Brad gasp in shock. "Get 'em, guys and gals. And start with the boys."

* * *

"No, stay away from me!" Chris cried as they advanced, fully ignoring Willow and Pat, completely focused on the two young men as they were brandishing their rusty, home-made looking weapons; one of them chuckled at his fear, then reached for him, and in response, Chris punched him, two others snarling in anger at the attack.

"Don't touch me!" the quarterback yelled again, keeping his fists up; the creeps exchanged a look, then three of them attacked him all at once, pained cries coming from him as they got past his defences and their weapons bit into his flesh, tearing deep gashes into his arms and legs.

At the same time, two more were moving closer to Brad, the young man whimpering as he, in turn, took steps back from them, until he hit the cold metal bars of the cage; unlike Chris, he knew that he was in no shape to fight, but brought his fists up anyway, telling them in a shaky voice to keep away from him while behind the creeps moving in on him, Willow kept holding her partner close to herself as her mind raced in an attempt to find a way out of this.

 _You have to try the magic again,_ she told herself, even though she knew that it might backfire spectacularly again and that trying to stop them with a spell would force her to stop the healing she was still working on her partner, but also knowing that she couldn't just let those creeps take the two guys.

Giving her best to keep her breath slow and steady, she focused on the trio still attacking Chris, even though the quarterback had stopped fighting back by now and was just struggling weakly as they cut him again and again; with another deep breath, her eyes narrowed as she focused on the floor beneath their feet, figuring that, if her magic might not work against them, she could at least use it on the building.

It just took the tiniest flicker of her fingers, unnoticed by anyone else, to make the ground beneath their feet shake and bulge; and even though it wasn't much, it was enough to throw them off balance, giving Chris a chance to push two of them back before the third one had regained his footing and was attacking him again.

 _Not enough,_ the witch thought to herself, realizing that more drastic measures needed to be taken, but also well aware of the fact that she'd risk giving herself away then; still, she knew that she couldn't just watch, and thus brought her hand up, her eyes narrowing yet again as she focused on the weapons the creeps were holding.

Again, all she needed was a brief movement of her fingers, and the weapons were torn out of their hands, to their great surprise, evidenced by the yelps they let out; one of the knifes landed in Willow's hand while the others hung in the air for a moment, then shot into motion again, burying themselves deep in the backs of the men who had grabbed Brad.

"Witch", she heard a rough voice snarl, almost expecting one of the creeps upon her as she turned; instead, she found herself looking at an old woman with stringy white hair, looking as diseased and deformed as the rest of them, her gaze surprisingly clear though as she glared at the redhead.

"Witch!" she repeated, louder this time, accompanied with a gesture at her, "take her!"

"No!" Rimmon protested, none of them listening to him though as the three who had been attacking Chris now turned to move in on her; they snarled and glared at her as they advanced slowly, their eyes never leaving the knife she still was holding, the witch giving her best to hold the weapon steady as she glared back at them.

"Stay away from me", she told them, already preparing another spell to launch at them even though this hadn't worked the last time she had tried, "your grandma over there's right, I'm a witch, and a powerful one at that!"

They snarled again in response, now spreading out to make defending against all of them at once more difficult; the one in the middle ended up unfortunate, with the witch stabbing him in the leg when he tried to grab her, then the two others were upon her and grabbed her, one of them making her cry out as he twisted her arm until she dropped the knife.

"No killing", the old woman snarled, entering the cage as well now that the witch had been grabbed, giving her another intense look, "keep… for litlun."

"Lucky you", Rimmon threw in when Willow gave her a confused look in reply, a cruel glint in his eyes now as he smiled at her, "you've just been promoted, from lunch and dinner to baby-bearer. If you're even luckier, one of the less gross ones might do the deed… Or all of them will, I really didn't figure out how this works in their society yet."

"No", Willow brought out as the two men holding her started dragging her towards the cage's gate, away from the two guys and the motionless form of her partner on the ground, "no! Let go of me!"

"Don't fight", Rimmon advised her, his smile turning into a malicious smirk, "soon, you'll be the only one left, and if you behave, you might even get out of here…Once you gave them a few kids."

He laughed, a cold shiver running down the redhead's spine as she looked at the creeps, imagined them on top of her, groping her and raping her; and all at once, bright anger flamed up within her, and with something shockingly close to a growl, her eyes flashed up red – before fire burst from her hands and spread up her arms, burning the men holding her and making them howl in pain as they both let go of her and jumped back, their yells mixing with the shocked cry Rimmon let out and the startled noises coming from the old woman, the witch hearing nothing of it though as she revelled in the power she could now feel burning brightly within her.


	14. Chapter 14

"Holy shit", Chris whispered, unable to take his gaze away from the witch as she stood there, the flames now not burning all the way up to her shoulders anymore, but still flickering from her hands; clearly scared of her, the creeps all were moving back from her, only Rimmon remaining where he was, staring at her with his eyes wide.

"Witch", the old woman croaked again, from a safe distance now though, almost hiding behind another one of them, "danger! Kill her!"

Neither of the two men who had been holding her just seconds ago made a move though, both of them just staring at her with fearful eyes; and then, Rimmon snarled, reached behind his back and brought out a knife, the witch somehow immediately knowing, without a doubt, that this was the weapon he had used on her partner, the weapon he almost had killed her with.

"If you don't kill her, then I will", he snarled, raising the knife as he moved closer to her, his eyes never leaving her and the fire still burning on her hands, "never mind the offspring, we can use the other one for that…"

Brandishing the knife, he took another step closer, looking as if he expected her to move back; she did no such thing though, standing her ground, the red now gone from her eyes, the anger still there though, burning as bright as the fire still dancing around her hands.

"I'll enjoy feasting from you", Rimmon told her, in an attempt to unsettle her, "I'll eat your brilliant brain, and I'll savour each and every bite…"

"If you want it, come and get it", Willow gave back, clenching her fists, ready to burn each and every part of him she'd be able to reach the moment he'd be close enough; with something close to pure hatred in his eyes, Rimmon took another step closer in response, and that was when the knife shot past the witch and hit him in the shoulder, a yelp which was a mixture of surprise and pain coming from him at the unexpected injury.

Surprised as well, Willow lowered her hands, not even noticing how the flames vanished from them; for a moment, she thought it had been Brad or Chris who had attacked, then she heard a familiar voice groan behind her and spun around so fast she nearly made herself dizzy, her eyes almost doubling in size when her gaze fell on Pat sitting more or less upright, leaning against the wall, still pale and looking as if she was in tremendous pain, but awake and aware.

"Dammit", the demon now grunted, grasping the wall behind herself to come to her feet, "I was aiming for the chest."

And then, she was standing, still clutching at the injury with one hand, swaying slightly, but not falling; and when the transformation started moments later, Willow couldn't help it, but just had to smile, knowing that now, the creeps were in for a world of hurt.

Clearly, they were realizing that something potentially bad for them was going on as well, mumbling to each other as they watched the change; clutching his shoulder, Rimmon stared as well, looking as if he wanted to faint on the spot once the transformation was done and a glowing red, angry eye focused on him.

"Should have made sure I'm dead", she grumbled, making Willow smile slightly; with a trembling hand, Rimmon raised his knife in response, only to scream a second later as bright fire shot from the demon's hands and engulfed him, the creeps letting out shocked cries at the sight.

The moment he had dropped the knife, flailing around in pain as his clothes and hair had caught fire, Pat moved in on him and grabbed him around the throat with one hand; snarling, she lifted with him ease, the wound he had inflicted on her gone by now, healed without leaving the tiniest trace that it ever had been there.

"Too bad that leaving me alive was your last mistake", she added, tightening her grip on him; for a moment, she felt like choking him to death, slowly and torturously, then told herself that there wasn't time for this now, not with so many of the creeps around, and the possibility that they might get over their shock and attack them after all – and thus, she broke his neck with one sharp movement, making some of the creeps cry out in shock, their sounds mixing with the low thump his body caused as she let go of him and he dropped down lifelessly.

"One down", Pat grumbled, turning to face the rest of them, "a bunch more to go. Who wants to go first?"

To her slight surprise, two of them accepted the challenge, snarling and growling as they rushed at her; without too much effort, she caught them each with one hand, then lifted them off the floor, Brad and Chris watching with silent astonishment how she killed them by smashing their heads together while Willow had an unmistakable look of pride on her face, holding back the urge to cheer when moments later, her partner dropped the two guys and caught a third before he could run past her, breaking his neck as effortlessly as others might break a thin twig.

And then, she lowered herself on all fours, something Willow hardly ever had seen her do before and, with a growl, bounded out of the cage and jumped the one nearest to her; for a second, the witch was sure that she'd just use her teeth to rip his throat out, the thought making her grimace, but thankfully, her lover had other ideas in mind, tearing his throat after all, but with the help of the sharp claws her fingernails had turned into instead of her teeth.

"Holy shit", Chris breathed, moving closer to Brad, his gaze never leaving the demon, even though she vanished from sight moments later as a bunch of the creeps jumped her all at once in an attempt to take her down; he winced as he had a second to ask himself if this was it, if they'd kill her now and then they'd be finished, then a shockingly loud growl echoed through the room as she burst back to her feet, sending them flying everywhere.

After that, it didn't take long anymore; Pat ploughed through them with frightening efficiency, none of them standing the slightest chance against her; and just as she snapped the neck of the last one standing, the door flew open and Buffy stood there, a bloodied sword in hand and looking ready to fight, lowering the weapon again though when she realized that only a bunch of frightened looking college students and a shaggy, grumbling demon she knew quite well were standing upright, the other occupants of the room lying strewn all around it.

"Buffy", Willow stated in surprise, then fell silent, not sure what else to say; the blonde glanced around the room at all the carnage for a few more moments in response, then let out a heavy sigh and shook her head, looking and sounding glum when she finally did speak up. "Aw, man. I'm late, aren't I?"


	15. Chapter 15

"No more field trips for you", Pat told the witch ten minutes later, now back to her human form and leaning rather heavily on her lover as they walked up the stairs together, one hand pressed against where the wound had been again now, "especially not to creepy asylums."

"Almost done with university", Willow reminded her in response, "so no, no more field trips for me. Why are you still in pain?"

"Because I almost died", the demon sighed, "would have, in fact, if you hadn't healed me. Thanks for that."

"Nothing to thank me for", the redhead reassured her, then frowned as the implications of those words hit her, giving the taller woman a curious look while she went on. "Wait, you know I did that? How? You were like in a coma when I healed you!"

"I… felt it, for lack of a better word", Pat shrugged, "when I woke up. I was feeling all warm and tingly and so much better than I did when I passed out. Only got topped when I demoned out and healed the rest of it. Treacherous little professor bastard."

"You can say that again", Chris mumbled behind her, leaning heavily on Brad and limping while Buffy brought up the rear, carrying Sylvie in her arms, the girl now not crying anymore, but just staring ahead silently, "twisted idiot, taking us here to be eaten…"

"You'll have to tell me all about that once we're back home", Buffy called to the two women walking up ahead, "because so far, all I know for sure is that there were creepy people out there, apparently out to eat me or something."

"We'll explain later", Willow promised, "now, all I want is to go home, have a giant meal and then go to sleep. All that excitement made me really hungry. And tired. Please tell me we don't have to walk back home?"

"No", Buffy and Pat confirmed at the same time, the demon gesturing at Buffy afterwards, letting her talk first.

"I borrowed Giles' car", she did just that, "parked it at the bus. Next to your motorcycle, Pat, since when do you own one?"

"…I borrowed it, too", the taller woman gave back, "only, well, I didn't ask the guy it belongs to."

"Let's hope police won't be waiting once we get back home", Willow mumbled, too tired by now to care about any criminal acts her lover might have committed to get to the asylum in time; having the decency to look a bit guilty, the taller woman nodded her agreement, both of them ignoring the way Chris and Brad were looking at each other, clearly startled by this newest revelation.

"…I'll never say anything to Willow ever again", the quarterback muttered after a few moments of silence, low enough so only Brad could hear him, the young man raising an eyebrow in response, prompting him to shrug slightly.

"What?" he then went on, shrugging while he gestured at the black haired woman with his free hand, "apparently, she knows how to borrow motorcycles without needing the key, you've seen how she handles that axe, and as if all that wasn't enough, she turns into some kind of bulky hairy demon thing and shoots fire all over the place. Last thing I need is that she comes after me to eat me after I said the wrong thing to her girlfriend."

"That would be more noble if you'd just stop because it's not like it matters, anyway", Brad mumbled, giving him a hard look, "but I suppose Willow will be glad about it either way."

With another uneasy glance at the couple walking ahead of them, Chris nodded, gulping as he thought of the demon's much furrier form again; slightly amused at how his tough guy persona had vanished, Brad just smirked, not making another comment though, merely focusing on supporting him so they'd get out of the building as fast as possible.

"Okay, I'm getting better", Pat told her partner up ahead, "you can let go of me now."

"You're just saying that because you want to smoke", Willow gave back, rolling her eyes, but letting go of the demon anyway; smirking, the taller woman merely nodded in reply, then dug out her cigarettes and lit one of them up, looking absurdly content after the first long drag.

"So", she then smirked, as the entrance hall finally came into view, a hint of mischief in her gaze when she looked at her partner, "you up for a little motorcycle ride?"

* * *

"Oh yes", Willow sighed out quite some time later, after having eaten the big meal she had been looking forward to, having moved on to the couch afterwards, now halfway lying on it and halfway on her partner, who had been the reason for this sound of delight by starting to massage her shoulders, "that's just what I need now. What an exciting day."

"You can say that again", the demon gave back with a roll of her good eye, "as I said, no more field trips for you."

"You know", Willow thoughtfully said after a few moments of just enjoying the massage in silence, turning slightly so she could look at her lover, "I'm starting to think I attract these things. I mean, millions of students take field trips every year, and I'm among the only group which almost gets eaten by a bunch of crazy cannibals."

"Well, we are in Sunnydale", Pat pointed out in response, "Hellmouth and all, remember? So not really that surprising. I suppose it's a good thing you were there or they all would have ended up eaten."

"And Rimmon would have been the newest member of the little family", Willow added with a shudder, "God, I can't believe he did this… He always seemed so… normal in class, and so nice and competent."

"You know what they say about still waters", Pat shrugged, clearly not as perturbed by the unpleasant reveal about the professor's true colours; to her surprise, the witch giggled slightly in response, then turned further to look at her fully, smiling in that slightly impish way the taller woman liked so much.

"Bet he thought the same thing about me", Willow now started explaining her mirth, "until I channelled you or something, because he when he made his comments about those creeps keeping me for childbearing, I got really angry… and then I burned them, like you usually do. I think I even growled."

"Wow", the demon gave back, raising an eyebrow, "and I was out cold and didn't even see it, dammit. Think you can do it again?"

"Not sure", the witch had to admit, "I'm not even sure how I did it back then. At first I was scared, but then I got so angry, and that's when it happened."

"Good thing I was still out cold when he made those remarks", Pat grumbled, tightening her embrace around her as if to make sure that she and all of this was real, that she wasn't still comatose in the asylum while the creeps were doing God knew what to Willow, "or I would have ripped his head off on the spot."

"You almost did that anyway", the witch shrugged, earning an agreeing growl from the taller woman, smiling slightly again as she moved on the couch, to the taller woman's obvious surprise straddling her moments later, a familiar glint in her eyes as she smiled down on her, running both hands from the demon's chest down over her stomach and to her belt.

"You know", Willow almost purred, a smirk curling Pat's lips as well by now, knowing where this would lead, "when we got home, I was really tired, but now I feel quite awake. Think you can make me tired again?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I can do that", the demon reassured her with a low growl, making her smile widen slightly – before she bent down and kissed her quite deeply, all the fear and pain and terror of the previous hours forgotten as she felt the taller woman's hands slide beneath her shirt, reassuring them both that they were alive and well and that the once more had survived the horror which had been thrown at them.

End.


End file.
